Vergara, publisher of the weekly Philippine Post and secretary of the Mindanao Press Club and the Iligan Press Club, was shot at close range by three unidentified assailants as he left a printing plant on Quezon Avenue in Iligan City. A security guard who witnessed the attack and attempted to intervene was also killed. Editor of the Post until he became publisher in 1989, Vergara was known to write hard-hitting columns on graft and corruption.