Man just released by fiscal shot dead

A 27-year-old man, reportedly a toughie in barangay Duljo-Fatima who was arrested last Monday, was killed on Wednesday afternoon a few minutes after he was cleared of a complaint and ordered released by the City Prosecutors Office.

Police said the first victim, Jasper “Tabilong” Canton, was hit once in the right temple when shot by a still unidentified man while he was riding a passenger jeepney with his mother Helen, his sisters Rowena Luna and Jennifer Alegado, and the complainant Jenine Mejares.

They had just came from the prosecutor’s office and were on their way to the downtown area. When the jeepney stop to a red light near the City Central School on Osmeña Boulevard, two men, with helmets and black jackets, on a blue motorcycle stopped beside the jeepney near where the victim was seated.

The backrider alighted and shot Canton, then he returned casually to the motorcycle and sped off toward P. del Rosario Avenue. The victim was rushed to the Cebu City Medical Center but died a few minutes later.

Police said that, even if the manner of the shooting was somewhat similar to the way of the vigilantes more than a year ago, they believed that the shooting had something to do with the “war” between two clans in barangays Duljo-Fatima and Mambaling.

Canton was arrested after his group, “Takals Gang” of Duljo, reportedly attacked two days earlier the group of the Mejares’ family, which was headed by Rolando “Bogart” Mejares of sitio Puntod Alaska in Mambaling.

The two groups have always clashed in the streets of Duljo after last May 5 when Jerome Cabo, a nephew of Mejares, was allegedly gunned down by two Takal Gang members, identified as Alexis Rosales and a certain Undo Budlat. Since then, the group of Canton reportedly continued to threaten the Mejares family of more of the latter “to follow” or killed.

Senior Insp. George Ylanan, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Branch, said the police have sent several police cars to the area every time a report comes up that the two groups are into a rumble again in the area. Always, however, the police would find nothing, as the two groups quickly left the place before the policemen arrive. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE