GENERAL SANTOS CITY – A gubernatorial aspirant in the forthcoming May 2025 midterm polls in Sarangani Province was shot on Saturday night inside the vicinity of the Seventh Day Adventist Compound on Dacera Avenue, Barangay City Heights.

Gensan Police identified the victim as Gladden Lim, 48 years old, a resident of Alabel, Sarangani Province.

Initial police investigations disclosed that an unidentified suspect was already waiting for the victim as he approached their vehicle. The victim had just finished a meeting inside the SDA Compound when the incident occurred.

According to witnesses, they heard five simultaneous gunshots before seeing the suspect, wearing a red cap and riding a Yamaha Aerox, fleeing the scene. Police investigations further revealed that the male victim suffered wounds to his stomach.

Meanwhile, Police Captain Miguel Angelo Quidilla, Chief of Police of Police Station 4, in a phone interview, disclosed that authorities have a person of interest.

Lim's wife, Attorney Edsel, confirmed to them that they had already received a death threat prior to the shooting.

Quidilla further stated that they have already ruled out election-related motives. He said that the police are now looking into land conflict as the possible motive behind the shooting.

The police official also revealed that a hot pursuit operation is being conducted to capture the fleeing perpetrator as of this writing. Quidilla noted that Gensan PNP Director Police Colonel Nicomedes Olaivar Jr. has already directed the police operation against the suspect to resolve the incident immediately.

The shooting of Lim in the highly urbanized Barangay City Heights is the third such incident this year.

City Mayor Lorelie Pacquiao condemned the shooting, saying that the suspects must be captured and brought to justice.

Sources also disclosed that Lim has already undergone surgery and is now recuperating.