PH mayor shot dead during flag-raising rites

A mayor in Cagayan province, north of Manila, was shot to death by suspected New People’s Army members in the middle of a flag-raising ceremony early Monday.

Gonzaga town Mayor Carlito Pentecostes Jr., was gunned down by eight armed men after they had intruded at a municipal ceremony around 8 a.m.

Deputy Director General Felipe Rojas Jr., Philippine National Police deputy chief for administration, said over Twitter that the gunmen disarmed three policemen manning the traffic and used their mobile cars to escape after incident.

Rojas said the Cagayan police a‎re still conducting pursuit operations against the assailants.

In October 2012, Pentecostes sued an anti-mining leader posting on Facebook an allegedly libelous account of how he supposedly harassed activists in an anti-mining demonstration in April 2011.--Source: Inquirer.net