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Friday, January 21, 2005
2 men shot dead in latest vigilante attack
By Mia E. Abellana
CEBU CITY -- For the third time this year, vigilantes shot dead two men in an empty lot in Sitio Gebaran, Nivel Hills, Lahug, Cebu City.
The two men had their shirts pulled over their faces, while packaging tape was used to cover their mouths.
One of them was handcuffed while another had the word "Coro" tattooed on his left foot.
The attack came less than a week since Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal appealed for an end to the summary executions, after 13 suspected criminals were gunned down or strangled in late December.
So far this year, five have died in similar attacks.
All the attacks appeared unprovoked.
The victims were not armed, although nearly all of them were confirmed to have criminal records for theft, robbery or murder.
Not a single suspect has been arrested, and police blamed the lack of complainants and witnesses for the lack of progress in their investigations.
According to a security guard detailed at Vibal Publishing, he heard four shots about 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
He was inside the office when the shots rang out.
When he went to check, he saw three men with handkerchiefs covering their noses and mouths board a blue Lancer sedan.
The guard said the box-type 1990s model Lancer had no plate number.
They left for the main road to Nivel Hills.
However, other bystanders in the area gave a different version.
They said it was a maroon car and that they heard six shots.
None of them came forward to talk to the police, though.
Homicide investigator SPO2 Zenaido Pastorfide Jr. believes the two men were killed in the area, not dumped, because their flesh was still soft.
He refused to conclude that their death was the work of a vigilante group that may be behind the killing of 16 others since Dec. 22.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña has remained firm on his stance to activate an elite police team to hunt down criminals in the city.
Osmeña earlier said that he probably "inspired" the killings but that he had no hand in them.
Police officials told the City Council they have identified suspects in two of 18 incidents.
The area where the two men were killed Thursday is an empty lot, just a stone's throw away from the house of Sun.Star publisher Jesus "Sonny" Garcia Jr.
Garcia's house is across Vibal Publishing.
The first victim wore blue Jag jeans and had the word "Coro" tattooed on his left foot.
Police found a black cloth mask, an undetermined amount of coins and bills and a lighter in his pockets.
He was wounded in the right and left side and in his head.
The second victim, who was slimmer, had on a pair of black shorts.
He was lying on his back with hands cuffed behind him.
Police recovered a white face towel from his pocket.
The roll of packaging tape used to cover both their faces was still attached to his head.
He had two gunshot wounds in the right side of his torso and a wound in his right eye.
Pastorfide said they were not going to touch the masking tape covering the faces of the two victims until the PNP Crime Laboratory examines these for fingerprints.
An empty shell was recovered not far from where the bodies of the two men lay.
Pastorfide told reporters they will be submitting it to the laboratory to determine what caliber it was.
As of 7:30 Thursday night, no one claimed the bodies of the two persons.
Camilo Nobion, liaison officer of the Cebu Memorial Funeral Homes, told Sun.Star they could not touch the bodies yet because the crime laboratory has yet to inspect the bodies.
He said that medico-legal officer Dr. Gil Macato also declined to do an autopsy because the crime laboratory still did not take fingerprints of the two men.
Police have yet to gain leads in the killing of three men last weekend.
Last Sunday dawn, the bodies of Jimmy Labadan and Fermin Pulido of Bayugan, Agusan del Sur were dumped on a grassy area in Barangay Sirao.
The night before, Zaldy Anduyan's body was dropped off in the North Reclamation Area.
Also Thursday, a farmer was found dead in Barangay Buot-Taup.
Saturnino Carreon, 44, was reportedly shot by an unidentified assailant Wednesday night, but ran from his house to hide.
He was found the next day beside a creek some 80 meters from his house.
PO1 Jojo Ursaiz said Carreon was cleaning the feeding bottles of his six-month-old child when someone shot him from behind.
He said the walls of Carreon's house had holes and the gunman merely put the gun's barrel through one of the holes.
The residents of Buot-Taup were shocked, saying Carreon was a good man and they could not think of anyone who would want him dead.
Ursaiz believes, though, that the gunman was a resident of the area, saying the assailant would not have risked walking all the way to Carreon's house at night just to kill him, if he was an outsider.
(January 21, 2005 issue)
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