ILOILO CITY – The government’s all-out drive against lawless elements suffered a major setback with the murder of mayoralty candidate and former Mayor Luis Mondia Jr. of Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas said Saturday.

It happened in front of Jaro cathedral, where there was a streaming crowd after the Ash Wednesday mass — just a stone’s throw away from the police station, he said in a radio interview.

He said this was the first election-related killing in the city.

He expressed disappointment because the incident “showed failure in intelligence.” He said prior to the shooting, he had been feeding the police with information regarding an alleged plot against Mondia’s life.

Trenas urged top officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the city and region to work for the immediate resolution of the case.

Iloilo City police investigators have already established the identities of the suspected assassins of the late former mayor. Their cartographic sketches have already been drawn based from testimonies of eyewitnesses.

A civilian volunteer organization (CVO) member who was directing traffic at the time personally saw the incident and described the faces of the two motorcycle-riding gunmen whom he said waited a few meters from the Mazda pickup car of Mondia while he was attending holy Mass.

When Mondia left the church together with his wife and eight-year-old granddaughter and approached his car, the assassins appeared and sprayed bullets at him. They later fled towards Barangay El 98 in Jaro District of Iloilo City.

Col. Ranie Demiar, press information officer (PIO) of Police Regional Office (PRO) 6, said the Task Force Mondia created by RD Police Chief Supt. Isagani Cuevas is spearheading the investigation and manhunt operations against the suspects. The task force is headed by Senior Supt. Cornelio Defensor of the Regional Intelligence division, with elements from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 6, Jaro Police Station, PRO-6 Crime Laboratory, Regional Investigation Division Management, and the police provincial offices of Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

Mondia reportedly owned a house in Don Francisco Village, Jaro District where he earlier moved his family due to the “boiling” political atmosphere in Pulupandan after he declared his bid for the mayoralty of Pulupandan against his political rival, incumbent Mayor Magdaleno Pena.

Mondia’s family pointed at the mayor as responsible for the murder, but Pena has denied their accusation. Pena pointed to the Mondia camp as responsible for his attempted ambush in 2007 which killed two of his bodyguards a few days after the elections where Pena won against Mondia.

Meantime, the family of Mondia said they wanted their kin’s cadaver to be brought to Bacolod where he will be buried, not in Pulupandan.