By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent
THE eldest son of mayoral candidate, incumbent 1st District Rep. Rolando Uy, has been laid to rest this morning as hundreds of his supporters came to witness the burial at the Oro Garden Memorial Park in Barangay Lumbia, this city.
“We love you anak. Goodbye,” the grieving Uy said at the end of his eulogy.
The 67-year-old congressmen told his political supporters how the murder of his eldest son, Roland “Tawee” Sherwin, and his caretaker Samuel Pabalan, have shaken their family.
“Tawee was not a perfect human being but he was a good son, a good brother to us,” said Uy who broke down several times as he read from a three-page statement.
“We can not accept that he was brutally slain,” Uy said.
The young Roland Sherwin, a kagawad of Barangay Carmen here, and his caretaker, Pabalan, were gunned down by two unidentified men in their family-owned quarry in Barangay Pagatpat, this city on Nov. 9.
Police are not discounting the possibility that the killing of the 45-year-old Roland Sherwin is politically motivated especially that the elder Uy is the frontrunner of the mayoralty race here.
Pabalan was buried last Wednesday in another private cemetery, radio reports said.
“We can not see the reason why my son has to be mercilessly killed,” Uy said.
He said they have entrusted the Philippine National Police to arrest and bring the killers to justice.
His other son, Vice Mayor Raineir Joaquin Uy said his family and friends are offering a P14 million bounty for the arrest of the killers.
Cagayan de Oro police spokesperson Major Evan Viñas said investigators have come up with the sketches of the two gunmen after a new witness came forward.
Viñas said the witness, who is an employee of a car wash shop in Barangay Pagatpat, told police he saw the suspects come in a gray Nissan Almera car.
He said a CCTV camera from a nearby establishment was also able to record the occupants of the car.
“We suspect that the car brought the gunmen to Barangay Pagatpat where they transferred to a waiting motorcycle,” Viñas said.
The killing of Sherwin sent a shock to residents here who fear that this could be the beginning of a new era of electoral violence in the city.
