SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union -- A reporter of Commando Radio in Vigan City is in critical condition after he was ambushed Thursday evening.
Ilocos Sur Police Provincial Office Director Eduardo Dopale identified the victim as 47-year-old Eugene Paet.
Paet sustained a lone gunshot that entered at the left side of his body and exited at the right side.
“Our police personnel are conducting thorough investigation on the incident. I have instructed the establishment of checkpoints and the conduct of dragnet operations in the area for the possible apprehension of the suspect,” said Dopale.
The unidentified suspects are riding in tandem in a motorcycle.
The police official said Paet was on his way home driving his motorcycle when the assailants ambushed him at Dulag Centro in Bantay town, Ilocos Sur.
According to Dopale, one of the angles they are looking at is personal grudge as Paet allegedly had a heated altercation with somebody last December.
In a related development, the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office has created a task force, Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) Villalba, to investigate the failed assassination of Sta. Maria (Pangasinan) Assistant Commission on Elections (Comelec) officer Juanito Villalba last Wednesday afternoon.
The Sta. Maria police already have filed a frustrated murder case against a person identified by the victim as the one who fired at him.
Juanito Villalba, 60, was driving home on his motorcycle when two motorcycle riding suspects shot him from behind at the national highway in Barangay San Alejandro, Sta. Maria.
Villalba is now in stable condition from the lone gunshot wound he sustained in the back and is now recuperating at a private hospital in Urdaneta City.
He told the Sta. Maria Police investigators he was able to identify the gunman as the two suspects were not wearing a headgear to conceal their faces.
SITG head Police Superintendent Michael Nicolas said Villalba stated that a certain “Ventura,” (husband of one Ofelia Madiam) is the gunman.
Elements of the Sta. Maria Police Station were able to locate Ventura and invited him at the police station for investigation.
Accordingly, he identified himself as Eusebio Batawag Ventura, 43, a resident of Barangay San Patricio of Sta. Maria town.
Ventura voluntarily submitted himself for paraffin test at the PNP Crime Laboratory Office in Urdaneta City and remains under the custody of the Sta. Maria police.
Allegedly, Ventura acts as a security escort of a mayoralty candidate in the town.