It is not only vigilante killings that are again on the upsurge. So are gang-related killings.
A week after an art and sign artist was killed and three others were injured in what police believed was gang-related violence, another man was killed and another wounded, also in what police believed was of similar motivation — gang violence.
What made the latest incident more alarming is that both shooting incidents happened in the same place, at corner D. Jakosalem and Zamoras street in barangay Parian, giving rise to suspicions that the gangs involved in the shootings must be from within the same community.
Concerned by the incidents, Cebu City police chief Senior Superintendent Patrocinio Comendador said he will be ordering the Parian police station to intensify checkpoints and put more men on the streets for police visibility.
Aside from the gangs, Comendador said store owners in the area are partly to blame for the violence as they continue to sell liquor to minors.
Police identified the fatality as a certain Armand Panit, 20. He was driving a red Honda XRM motorcycle with his friend Dandy Pador, 19, when shot by two other men on another motorcycle.
Both victims were from barangay Tabunan .
PO2 Buenaventura Ursaiz and PO1 Lou Pagara of the Homicide Section, said the two assailants were wearing black jackets at the time of the attack and did not bother to cover their faces.
A witness who saw the actual shooting however told police he failed to see their faces or recognize them as he promptly fled on seeing them shoot the two men.
The attackers, he said, shouted “ walay mopalag ha ( nobody snitches ) “ before fleeing.
The witness said he saw the victims moving slowly on their motorcycle from the direction of barangay Kamagayan. One thing he noticed was that they were riding against the flow of traffic. They stopped at the corner to smoke and engage in light banter when the two attackers suddenly appeared in another motorcycle, stopped right in front of them, and started shooting.
The attackers had come from the same direction as had the victims.
The witness said Pador tried to escape but his leg got pinned down by the motorcycle as Panit, who was driving, fell. With both pinned down, it became easier for the attackers to shoot them. Panit was hit on the head and died instantly. Pador was hit on the neck and survived.
Students from a nearby university took Pador to a hospital where he is now in critical condition.
Police found three empty .45 caliber bullet casings at the site.
Ursaiz told The Freeman that when the victims left Tabunan Friday evening they told relatives they were bound for Lapulapu City. The relatives were surprised to learn later that the two had been waylaid in Parian.
Ursaiz said it was learned that the two had in fact been in Kamagayan apparently trying to solicit sex but left without succeeding. Had they stayed and had sex, they probably would not have met their violent fate.
Inspector Mario Monilar, chief of the Homicide Section, said they are looking into the angle of mistaken identity, but are not setting aside other possible motives, including a possible connection to the shootings in the same place a week ago.
On September 21, two men on a motorcycle shot at a group of six men drinking not far from where yesterday’s shooting took place.
Homicide investigators still do not have clues to that drive-by shooting other than the information that one of those injured is the father of a gang member.
Monilar said Panit and Pador could have been mistaken as residents of Parian and possibly as members of gangs or frats there.
Barangay Parian is home to many boarding houses peopled by students from other places who may be engaged in regional rivalries. (/JST)