Makati Vice Mayor and mayoral candidate Ernesto “Kado” Mercado reiterated Sunday his call to have the city placed under the control of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) following another case of alleged election-related violence there.

Mercado made the appeal after Bernardo Olarte, a village leader allegedly identified with the incumbent mayor and vice presidential aspirant Jejomar Binay, was shot dead on Holy Wednesday in front of his home in Barangay Guadalupe Viejo.

The vice mayor also wants the Philippine National Police (PNP) to form a task force to look into the killing even as Binay’s camp claimed that the case was politically-motivated.

Reports said Olarte, 63, served as a local campaign organizer for the Binays. Currently campaigning aside from the mayor is his son, District I Councilor Jejomar Erwin “Jun-Jun” Binay, who is vying for the mayoralty seat in the May 10 elections.

Lawyer Chito Salud, Mercado’s spokesperson, said that it is high-time for authorities to step in and diffuse the tension in Makati.

“We do not want to make remarks that may muddle the investigation, but there have already been two incidents. We sincerely believe it’s time to put a stop to these,” Salud said, referring to Olarte’s murder last March 31 and the attack on businessman Gerardo Limlingan just 10 days earlier.

Limlingan, who is known to be the elder Binay’s personal liaison officer to the business community, was ambushed in Cainta, Rizal on his way home from a golf game.

The attack was similar to the assassination of Binay’s former security chief Pablo Glean, who was killed at a gas station in Taguig City in September 2006.

Glean was head of Makati city hall’s business permits and licensing office and police investigators wanted to investigate the possibility that Glean may have been killed because of his duties as the city permits officer.