ANGELES CITY – The multi-term chairman of Barangay Sto. Cristo here was shot dead by still unknown suspects
near a cockpit in Barangay Recto at about 10:30 p.m last Sunday.
Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, who rushed to the crime scene immediately after the shooting, identified the victim as his political supporter Efren de la Cruz, 65, a former president of this city’s Association of Barangay Chairman (ABC) and winner as chair of Sto. Cristo in the last barangay polls.
“He championed the cause of peace and order in the city,” Pamintuan said in a telephone interview. City police director Senior Supt. Eden Ugale said De la Cruz sustained two gunshot wounds in the head. The suspect apparently used a .45 calibre pistol, he noted.
He said De la Cruz was about to enter his pick up van parked along a street at the back of the Angeles University Foundation when he was shot.
As of yesterday, probers were still looking for any witness and had neither clue nor identify of any possible suspect. Ugale said De la Cruz had initiated a derby in a cockpit in the area when he was killed. “His aide
had gone ahead of him and was among the last to leave, perhaps after some accounting on the outcome of the derby had been settled,” he said.
Pamintuan said the exact site of the shooting was well lighted and located near a store and dormitory.
“Someone could have seen the shooting. We are urging them to come out and we assure them of protection,” he added. He said De la Cruz had been his political supporter for years, noting the victim had been active in the local peace and order drive.
“He was also in the Army civilian reserve force,” he noted De la Cruz used to be the ABC president here until he finished three successive terms that created a gap in his barangay stint. In the last barangay polls, however, he again ran and won as chairman of Sto. Cristo. De la Cruz and 33 other newly elected barangay chairmen in this
city were inducted into office by Pamintuan only last Friday.
Before moving to the camp of Pamintuan, De la Cruz used to be known as a political ally of a prominent political family in this city
