MANILA (AFP) - Gunmen shot dead a deputy mayor on Sunday in the same southern Philippine province where political rivalry led to the countrys worst massacre last year, police said. Alexander Tomawis, the vice mayor of Barira town, was shot by two teenaged suspects, the regional police headquarters said in a statement. The motive for the attack remained unknown, but several large Muslim clans have for years vied for control of Maguindanao through violence, driving the agricultural province into poverty. In November last year, the most powerful of these, the Ampatuan clan, allegedly orchestrated the massacre of 57 people in a failed bid to stop a candidate from a rival family from contesting the governorship of the province.