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Suspected communist rebels gunned down a local candidate on Thursday for refusing to pay the permit to win/permit to campaign (PTW/PTC) fees the rebels were demanding, a military report said on Friday.

Killed was Ponciano Numeron, 50, of Barangay San Antonio, Pasacao town in Camarines Sur, who was a candidate for a local post in said town.

Army 1st Lieutenant Allan Divina, commander of the 9th Infantry Division, said the incident happened around 4 p.m. Thursday when four New People’s Army (NPA) hitmen fired at him in close range the victim killing him instantly.

Numeron was visiting a community in South Ulaniban of said village to help restore the busted street lights when he was shot several times by the attackers armed with a caliber 45 pistol.

The attackers immediately fled the scene after the incident.

Numeron was a retired police officer and sat as a director of an electric cooperative in the province.

The victim is running for municipal councilor under the Lakas-Kampi banner.

According to close friends of the victim, Numeron received a text message from the rebels demanding for PTC fees. As a former policeman, Numeron refused to pay extortion money despite the grave threats he received.

Major Harold M. Cabunoc, chief of the Public Affairs Office of the 9ID, said that Numeron is the third victim of the summary executions perpetrated by the NPA rebels in Pasacao town alone.

Five militiamen, a farmer suspected as a military informant, and a rebel returnee were also killed by the communist rebels across Bicol Region for the past two months, Cabunoc added. -pna

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