Tuesday, September 20, 2005
2 shot, wounded in Cebu City; 2 slain in Balamban
Two jeepney conductors, along with a passerby who tried to chase the assailants, survived a vigilante-style shooting in Barangay Cogon-Pardo, Cebu City Sunday afternoon, but two men with alleged links to illegal drugs died in a similar attack in Balamban town Saturday night.
Shortly before noon yesterday, a jeepney driver and his passenger were hurt in another shooting incident in downtown Cebu City. The attack happened when several bystanders got involved in a scuffle between the driver and a 14-year-old boy whom he nearly bumped with his jeepney.
In Sunday’s shooting, homicide investigators led by SPO2 Alex Dacua are still trying to determine why the two jeepney conductors, who were watching a boxing match on television, were attacked at 3:20 p.m. in a videoke joint in Highway Tagunol, Cogon-Pardo.
Two hooded men riding a motorcycle perpetrated the shooting. They also shot another motorcyle riderwho tried to follow them.
The jeepney conductors were identified as Christian Lansang, 29, of Lower Torre, Barangay Inayawan and Jude Sibangan, 19, who resides at Highway Tagunol, Cogon-Pardo.
Lansang and Sibangan were watching a boxing match inside the videoke joint along the road, when the gunmen, wearing cloth masks, arrived on board a red XRM motorcycle with no plate number.
They barged into the joint and shot Lansang and Sibangan several times.
Lansang was hit in the abdomen, while Sibangan suffered a gunshot wound in the left shoulder and right leg.
Mario Sasidon, 40, of Barangay Labangon, who happened to pass by the area on board his motorcycle, spotted the fleeing gunmen. He tried to tail them.
One of the gunmen shot at him, hitting the right side of his body.
The three victims were taken to the Cebu City Medical Center.
In Balamban town in western Cebu Saturday dawn, three men repeatedly shot at two men suspected to be involved in illegal drugs. The assailants were wearing helmets, concealing their faces.
Jeremias Luste, 31, and Darwin Panilag, 34, were sitting on a bench on the side of the road in Sitio Lacdon, Barangay Alicaway when the three assailants arrived on a motorcycle.
Senior Insp. Anthony Bagarinao said two of the three assailants got off the red Honda motorcycle while one stayed and kept the engine running. He said the motorcycle’s plate number was covered.
The men fired first at Luste, then at Panilag.
Panilag was able to run as the gunmen were shooting Luste, but he did not get far and died. Panilag made it to the Balamban District Hospital before he was transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City. He also died minutes later.
Both suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Bagarinao said Luste was known as a pusher while Panilag used drugs. The policeman believed this was the motive for the killing.
He said it was possible that they failed to remit their sales to a drug dealer or they might have sold fake shabu to someone.
Bagarinao said, though, that the two got involved in the illegal trade only recently, as he pointed out that most of the big-time pushers have been arrested.
But he could not conclude if a vigilante group was responsible, although he admitted the manner in which they were shot was similar to the victims of vigilante-style killings in Cebu City.
Police found empty shells for .45 pistol and .357 revolver.
In yesterday’s incident, SPO2 Jay Yballe identified the victims as jeepney driver Romulo Talaba, 25, and his passenger Ann Polintan, 34, of A. Lopez St., Cebu City.
Talaba, who plies the Talamban-Carbon route, was hit in the left arm while Polintan, who was sitting in the front seat, was hit in the left hip. Both were taken to the city hospital.
Talaba told Yballe’s team that the incident took place around 11:30 a.m. at the corner of Manalili and Legaspi Sts., after he nearly ran over a 14-year-old boy.
He said he stopped and got off from the vehicle to try and comfort the boy. But the boy allegedly pelted him and his conductor with stones instead.
This irked Talaba who admitted lightly hitting the boy in the head.
Several bystanders who saw what transpired approached him.
Talaba and his conductor hurriedly returned to the jeepney, but before he could start the engine, four gunshots rang out.
One of the bullets hit Talaba in the arm while the other bullet hit Polintan’s hip. (JST/MEA)
(September 20, 2005 issue)
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