Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer expressed concern over how recent violence in Bacolod City may affect the local business community.
“If there is peace, investors will come in but, if there is no stable security, they will go away,” the provincial official said.
Meanwhile, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry Executive Officer Frank Carbon said local businessmen are “worried.”
“We have not experienced [these] kind of killings,” he said. “We cannot make sense why these killings [are happening].”
“The sector is very worried and wary,” Carbon added.
Earlier this month, in response to the abduction and murder of Ontao Sacar, a Marawi City native whose remains were found in Bacolod City’s Barangay Mandalagan, Mayor Evelio Leonardia focused his attention on the optics of the situation and said the incident will not affect the city’s image as “the most business-friendly city.”
More recently, the elder brother of former Bacolod City Councilor Ricardo Tan was killed after he was gunned down by riding-in-tandem suspects in the city’s Barangay Estefania. Police identified the fatality as 70-year-old Roberto Kaishek Tan, a resident of the city’s Barangay Villamonte.
Based on initial information released by Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) spokesperson, Police Lt. Colonel Ariel Pico, Tan was driving home in his white Nissan Sentrawhen he was ambushed by two suspects aboard a motorcycle.
Meanwhile, Ferrer called on authorities investigations into local cases of extrajudicial killings./DGB, WDJ