Kabacan Vice Mayor Policronio Dulay, who was gunned down in broad daylight Jan. 11 in the town’s busy USM Avenue, was brought to his final resting place yesterday in a glass-covered hearse amid the weeping of the townspeople who lost a humble and respected leader.
Former Kabacan Mayor Tomas Baga, an icon in the town’s political scene, led the townspeople, including Mayor George Tan, in paying tribute to the fallen vice mayor.
One after the other, leaders of Kabacan delivered glowing accounts of the Pol Dulay they knew, the former policeman who became a respected Ilocano leader in the town and who was a cinch to become the mayor after Tan who is running for his third and final term.
While people of Kabacan expected Vice Mayor Dulay’s family to announce who will take over the candidacy of the slain leader, his eldest son, Engr. Pol Dulay, Jr., shocked the townspeople when, in a response delivered towards the end of the last rites, he announced that the family has decided that no one among the children will be involved in politics.
In a message ringing with pain and anguish, Pol Dulay declared that with the death of his father, his family’s involvement in politics will now end.
“Wala na pong Dulay ang makikilahok sa pulitika,” the young Dulay said.
It was an announcement that somehow drew sighs from the townspeople who thought that by not fielding a substitute for the slain vice mayor, the family was giving victory to the brains of the killing.
But it was calmly accepted by Mayor Tan who earlier declared that he was paralyzed politically by the killing of Vice Mayor Tan.
Under a resolution on substitution passed by the COMELEC, the only person who could substitute the slain vice mayor would be a candidate with the same family name.
Even as the Vice Mayor was laid to rest, concerned groups have continued their efforts to provide answers to the question on who killed Pol Dulay.
A reward money of P500,000 has been offered to informants who could identify the killers and the masterminds of the murder.
Of the amount, P200,000 was raised by Mayor Tan, P200,000 was allocated by the Sangguniang Bayan through Councilor Boyet Zaldivar while P100,000 was committed by my friends and supporters.)
(photo caption: Engr. Pol Dulay, Jr. looks as I shake the hand of his mother, who is afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, during the last rites at the Kabacan Gymnasium yesterday. Photo by Ferdinand Pinol)
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