Monday, August 08, 2004 Radioman says: We, not frat, were targets
CEBU CITY -- The three radio broadcasters may have not been the target of the attack on N. Bacalso Ave. and V. Rama Ave., Cebu City last Thursday night.
That is one angle the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 and the police are pursuing, as they linked the ambush to a fraternity war instead.
Chief Insp. Mariano Batiancela, head of the San Nicolas Police Station, said that last Thursday, the Alpha Kappa Rho (Akrho) fraternity had an early celebration of their founding anniversary.
The actual anniversary is Sunday, but they began their celebration last Thursday.
Police will be checking if the shooting had something to do with the Akrho anniversary.
The fraternity has a long-running rivalry with Tau Gamma Phi, which has resulted in fatal shootings and stabbings the past years.
Akrho chairman Richard Buscaino, who owns the San Fernando Funeral Homes, lives in the area.
But Buscaino denied the fraternity had anything to do with the incident and expressed his disappointment about the insinuations.
He found it unfair that whenever there is trouble, they are always linked to it.
Motives
George Benaojan, 26, Saul Kelvin Carrillo, 28, and Gildor Fuentes, 28, all of El Nuevo Bantay Radyo, escaped unhurt when three men fired at them twice but missed about 11:15 p.m. last Thursday.
They reportedly managed to fire back using Benaojan's two .45 pistols and an Ingram machine pistol.
Cebu Vice Gov. Gregorio Sanchez Jr., who owns Bantay Radyo, said he has no idea of the motive of the ambush.
He presented three possibilities, though-love angle, their being broadcasters or Benaojan's link with the Bureau of Customs.
Bantay Radyo commentator Rey Cortez was shot near the customs building in Aduana, Cebu City last June 12, 2003. He suffered a gunshot wound in the right thigh.
Witnesses earlier said the gunmen last Thursday were actually after a passing jeepney.
Another witness said the gunmen were aiming at a motorcycle and not Benaojan's Mitsubishi Pajero.
But Benaojan believes they were indeed the targets as Carrillo, son of Bantay Radyo station manager Jun Carrillo, had just gotten off the Pajero when a shot was fired.
Batiancela said they will be gathering statements of witnesses before they start exploring other angles.
Benaojan already pointed out that it was possible his enemies followed him from Minglanilla town.
His group was heading to Bantay Radio in Cebu City when they were attacked as they stopped at the busy intersection of N. Bacalso and V. Rama Aves.
Benaojan recently filed a harassment complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against two policemen and a barangay captain after they searched his vehicle for unlicensed firearms.
He said, though, that all his three firearms have complete documents.
It is also possible, he said, that some people got angry at his comments in his radio program, "Expose ni Bay George."
If indeed the radiomen were the gunmen's target, the ambush would have been fatal because the vehicle had stopped, making them to vulnerable.
The gunmen were reportedly just three meters away from the rear of Benaojan's three-door Pajero.
Acting NBI 7 Chief Nelson Bartolome said they will get the evaluation report from the San Nicolas Police Station and the cartographic sketches of the three gunmen.
"We also have to check the background of the three mediamen. But as of now, we don't have clear focus yet on our investigation," he said.(MEA/GC/MBG)
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