2 men shot dead in 2 days

CEBU, Philippines - Two men were shot dead in Cebu City and Naga City the past two days.

In Cebu City, a collector of an appliance company was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men at the South Road Properties (SRP) yesterday morning.

The incident happened at Gate 2 past 9 a.m.

Rodolfo Bangquaio, a resident of Talisay City, was riding  on  his motorcycle on his way to work when he stopped at the area reportedly to seek shelter from the rain. The suspects arrived and shot him several times.

“Sa akong pagtuo morag mosilong ni siya, di na man kaayo to kusog pero padulong na to mohunong ang ulan (I think he wanted to seek  shelter from the rain. It wasn’t pouring hard… in fact, the rain nearly stopped at that time),” said Samuel Formentera, security guard of Café Security and Investigation Agency.

Formentera said the gunman was wearing a cap, eye glasses, and had a piece of cloth covering his mouth. He reportedly disembarked from the motorcycle to shoot the victim.

“Paghunong, segundos lang, nitapad, wala pa gani siya ka-side stand sa iyang motor, piti dayon, gidul-itan man siya og pusil padulong sa ibabaw ang pagpusil maong nilusot ang bala. (It only took seconds. Before the victim could park his motorcycle properly, the gunman approached him and shot him point blank in the head),” Formentera said.

PO2 Bryan Baylon of the city police’s Crime Scene Investigation unit said the victim was hit in his right temple and the bullet exited at the back of his head. Another bullet hit the right side of his body and got stuck in his abdomen.

SPO4 Alex Dacua of the Homicide Section said there were two suspects but robbery could not be the motive, considering that the suspects fled immediately after shooting the victim.

“Wa man gyud siya actually gikuhaan og belongings, igo rang gipusil pagkatumba gibiyaan (Nothing was taken from him. He was shot and was left behind when he fell to the ground),” Dacua said.

He  said they will check Bangquiao’s phone to see if he had death threats prior to the shooting.

Police recovered two empty shells and one slug of .45 caliber pistol from the crime scene.

Meanwhile, in the incident in Naga City, Marwin Paner, 36, was also driving his motorcycle when he was shot by an unidentified assailant also around 9 a.m.

It was tanod Vicente Candosa who responded to the incident and immediately sought the help of authorities upon arriving at the crime scene.

Initial police investigation conducted by the Naga police showed that Paner was on his way to a clinic to have his wounds from a motorcycle accident cleaned. However, when he reached the national highway in Barangay Inuboran, the suspects shot him several times.

He died after he fell to the ground.

Witnesses reportedly saw the suspect flee immediately right after the shooting.

Police recovered four empty shells of a caliber 45 pistol from the crime scene. – Bryner L. Diaz, Correspondent and Aron Apostol Rempohito, USJ-R MassCom Intern/JMO (FREEMAN)