Vigilante-type killings scare province; guv orders probe

Two men were killed in vigilante fashion in barangay Luray I, Toledo City Monday night, raising speculations that vigilantes operating in Cebu City have reached to other areas in the province.

Jaime Richard Lasaga, 24, and Novelito Tarungoy, 22, both residents of the barangay, were fired upon by two motorcycle-riding men while sitting on a bench. Lasaga sustained three gunshot wounds in different parts of his body while Tarungoy suffered a gunshot in the chest. The two were killed instantly.

Newly assigned Toledo City police chief, P/Supt Leodegario Acebedo, yesterday said that he was told that Lasaga was a former bigtime drug pusher in the city while Tarungoy was also a drug peddler.

Acebedo said they are eyeing two angles as motives behind the killings. One was the information they received that Lasaga ran off with P300,000 during a derby in one of the southern towns in the province last month, and the other had something to do with drug dealing.

Last Saturday evening, suspected vigilantes gunned down a man in barangay Poblacion, Carcar town. Eugenio Abella Jr., 34, was standing at the roadside when he was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding men.

The perpetrators wore bonnets and used a .45 caliber pistol in killing Abella.

Alarmed by the vigilante-style executions in the province, Governor Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday ordered Cebu Provincial Police Office chief Drusilio Bolodo to look into the killings in Carcar and Toledo City.

Garcia said that the Toledo City incident, in which two alleged drug pushers were summarily executed, has raised concern for the public to be vigilant.

The governor ordered Bolodo to submit a report on the incident so proper measures can be taken to prevent the vigilante-type killings to further escalate. - Flor Z. Perolino and Fred P. Languido