A government employee and his brother were shot dead when they tried to pacify two men fighting near a disco during the fiesta at sitio Lib-og in barangay Lanao, Daanbantayan Wednesday dawn.
The fatalities were 38-year-old Diosdado Rodrigo, an employee of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Cebu City, and his 54-year-old brother Francisco Rodrigo Sr. Both were residents of Daanbantayan.
Diosdado was hit in his abdomen while Francisco Sr. was hit in the left side of his body with the bullet embedded there. They were immediately taken to the Daanbantayan District Hospital but they died along the way.
Town police investigators gathered from a son of the older victim that a commotion occurred near a disco where two men, Alvin Condino and Raul Conpuesto, were fighting. They were also residents of the town.
It was Diosdado who approached first to pacify the two protagonists but another man, believed to be Condino’s companion, suddenly came and shot Diosdado with a .38 caliber revolver.
This prompted Francisco Sr. to run to his sprawled and bloodied brother but he too was shot also by the same gunman, witnesses told authorities.
PO1 Columbus Noynay, of the Daanbantayan Police, said that at least three witnesses identified the suspected gunman as a certain Nanding delos Santos, a resident of the town also. This suspected assailant fled from the crime scene along with Condino, said the witnesses.
Daanbantayan Police chief Jovito Canlapan had already ordered a manhunt of the suspected gunman and Condino. Investigators have been looking also into the possible motive of the killing. — Flor Z. Perolina/RAE