‘Love triangle’ ends in shooting

CEBU, Philippines - Local police believed that love triangle could be the motive why three suspects  open fired at a house in Barangay Malolos in Barili, Cebu around 5:30 in the morning the other day.

The police identified the victims as couple, Randy and Eunice Llanes, Lelet Llanes and Minerva Llanes.

Only two out of the three suspects was identified as Heldo Basera, resident of said barangay and Bonifacio Jimenez alias Junior, 21, resident of Barangay Cabcaban of said town.

PO3 Jorje Timagos, Barili Police Station desk officer on duty, told The FREEMAN in a phone interview that the victims were inside Randy's house when the incident took place.

The suspects reportedly positioned themselves some 15 meters away from the house of the Llanes.

Timagos said that suspect Jimenez called up the victims name one by one as if he was doing a roll call before they opened fire at the victims' house.

"Gitagsa-tagsa og mention ang ngalan," Timagos said.

The police said the victims ran in every direction and luckily no one was hurt during the incident.

Shortly before the incident took place, the Llaneses were talking about the illicit affair of Randy's wife, Eunice, with Jimenez.

Timagos said that Lelet and Minerva saw Jimenez inside Randy's house on December 26 at around 10:00 in the evening.

According to Timagos, only Eunice and her three-year-old baby was inside the house as alleged by Randy's mother and sister.

Few minutes after Jimenez went inside that house, the shack was noticeably shaking prompting Lelet and Minerva to get inside.

The saw Jimenez who tried to hide himself at the corner of the shack and when they tried to confront him, he jumped off the window and ran away.

This led the police to speculate that the possible motive for the shooting incident was indeed the love affair.

Barili Police is still conducting follow-up operation to capture the three suspects who will be facing attempted multiple murder charges. (FREEMAN)