A hard-hitting village chief of Barangay Tres de Mayo here was shot dead while in the midst of his daily Facebook Live at the garage of his residence on Tuesday night.
Oscar ‘Dodong’ Bucol, Jr., whose shooting was captured on Facebook, was killed while interviewing someone at 9:20 p.m. on Tuesday. He was speaking and about to finish his sentence when several shots rang out, and a cry of pain was heard off camera. The one he interviewed stood up and ran, and Bucol was seen on camera holding his back where he was hit, before he retreated off camera again, crying for help.
Bucol, who took a single shot on his body, was rushed to a private hospital in Digos City, but attending physicians already declared him dead.
Before the attack, the village official was known for his hard-hitting criticisms directed against local politicians, including the town’s chief of police.
The village official, who had been posting his hard-hitting videos on Facebook, had garnered more than 300,000 Facebook followers after the attack.
Colonel Leo Ajero, Davao del Sur police director, in a statement, strongly condemned the attack even as he assured that a dragnet operation was ongoing to capture the culprits.
Ajero also requested that a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) from PRO-11 be created to ensure a focused, thorough, and well-coordinated investigation into the killing of the village official.
Digos City Mayor Josef Fortich Cagas, whom Bucol had criticized, also condemned the killing. He said that even if he disagreed with Bucol on some political issues on social media, he never expected the latter to lose his life.
‘Since I entered politics, I have already accepted that criticisms are part of a democratic society,’ the mayor said.
‘No community should ever live in fear, and no family should ever lose a loved one to such violence,’ said Rep. John Tracy Cagas, also in a statement posted on his Facebook page.
‘I call on our law enforcement agencies to act swiftly and decisively to bring the perpetrator to justice. To his grieving family, please know that the entire community stands with you in this painful moment,’ he said