By Liza Agoot

PROBE. Crime investigators in Abra process the crime scene where former Lagangilang, Abra Mayor Jendricks Luna was shot and killed on Tuesday (June 3, 2025) morning. The Police Regional Office-Cordillera information unit said a manhunt is ongoing for his assailants. (Photo courtesy of PROCAR-PIO)

BAGUIO CITY – A manhunt is underway for the four assailants responsible for the killing of a former mayor of Langangilang town in Abra province on Tuesday morning.

Col. Carolina Lacuata, information officer of the Police Regional Office-Cordillera Administrative Region (PROCAR), said based on a report from the Abra Provincial Office, Jendricks Seares Luna, 54, was sitting at a kiosk in front of their house in Barangay Dangdangla, Bangued town, around past 8 a.m. when four persons on board two motorcycles shot him.

“The victim was rushed to Seares Memorial Hospital by his relatives but was declared dead by the attending physician,” Lacuata said.

Initial investigation showed the victim was shot multiple times, after which the suspects escaped in an unknown direction.

“The Municipal Police Stations, Mobile Forces, and intelligence operatives were alerted to conduct a dragnet operation for the possible arrest of the suspects,” Lacuata said.

“Our policemen on the field are following up on the incident,” she said.

At around noontime, police operatives recovered two abandoned motorcycles in Barangay Cosili of the same municipality, but it was not yet determined whether these were the ones used by the suspects.

Luna served as Langangilang mayor from 2016 to 2019.

In the recent national and local elections, he vied for a District 1 Board member position but lost. (PNA)