Gunman killed after attack on candidate's wife

Northern Luzon: Policemen killed a gunman who allegedly tried to assassinate the wife of a mayor candidate in Abra, a province in northern Luzon yesterday, a police report said.

The gunman, whose identity was not released, was shot at by policemen, when the former fired three times at Brenda Crisologo, the wife of Tineg Mayor Edwin Crisologo, while the couple were monitoring the counting of the ballots at the Holy Spirit in Bangued town at past midnight.

Mayor Crisologo was seeking a re-election in Abra province.

"The gunman resisted arrest. He died during a scuffle with responding policemen," said Chief Superintendent Raul Gonzales, police chief of the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Mrs Crisologo was wounded in the head, but she was brought to a nearby hospital where she was declared out of danger after five hours of treatment, said Gonzales.

"The failed assassination was politically motivated," said Gonzales.

Meanwhile, two grenades exploded at the Basilan State College in Sumagdang village, Isabela City, on Wednesday night, Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said in a belated report yesterday.

BLAZE
Five policemen held for alleged arson

Authorities have taken five policemen into custody on suspicion that they torched a school south of Manila where votes in the midterm elections were being counted, officials said yesterday.

Five gunmen - three wearing ski masks - barged into the precinct in Batangas province's Taysan town before dawn on Tuesday, fired their guns, poured gasoline on ballot boxes and torched the building, trapping two people, who died, police said. Three others were hospitalised.

Geary Barias, head of the national police's investigation directorate, said witnesses pointed to the policemen, who are suspected of acting for a mayoral candidate who was losing in the count.

- AP