Trader ambushed in Malabon: 5 dead

Five people were killed while one was wounded after at least eight armed men ambushed a bigtime fish dealer and her escorts on their way home at noon yesterday in Barangay Tinajeros, Malabon City.

Chief Superintendent Raul Gonzales, Northern Police District (NPD) director, who rushed to the ambush and shootout site, said the apparent target was Alicia Ordinario, 51, one of the largest stall holders at the Malabon Consignacion (wholesale market).

She survived the attack.

Dead on the spot were Benjamin Plopino, who was driving Ordinario’s cobalt blue Nissan Sentra GSX (XMX-190), bodyguard Michael Gabat, who was riding on the backup black Hyundai Starex van (XFN-406) and another bodyguard identified only as Jon-Jon, who was riding the van.

Ordinario sustained a broken right arm and several gunshot wounds on the right side of the body while her helper, Rosenda Gutierrez Orantino, who was seated beside her in the backseat of the car, was hit eight times.

PO3 Benedicto Zafra said Orantino died while receiving treatment at the hospital.

Both were rushed to the President Diosdado Macapagal Memorial Medical Center (PDMMMC) for treatment, but were later transferred to an undisclosed hospital.

Also killed was one of the suspects, who was declared dead on arrival at the Pagamutang Bayan ng Malabon.

Gonzales said he has dispatched a team to go after the other gunmen.

He also said that the safety of those wounded has been attended to with the detailing of security at the hospital where they were taken for treatment.

Malabon police chief Senior Superintendent Moises "Kamagong" Guevarra said that while they are already looking at several angles, including robbery and business rivalry, the real motive for the ambush is yet to be established.

The slain suspect, in his early 20s, died from a gunshot wound on the right chest. Police said he was likely the leader of the group.

Found by probers in the his possession were an empty holster for a .45 pistol and three pages of the ambush operational sketch. The sketch, written in pen and pencil, showed the time, the ambush site, and the suspects’ respective positions, among others.

Among items recovered by a Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) team led by Senior Inspector Domingo Alminana were a 9mm pistol, empty shells and deformed slugs from .38 revolvers, 9 mm and .45 pistols, several small blood-stained bags, a baseball cap, and women’s sandals.

A lady’s shoulder bag reportedly containing P.5 million in cash belonging to Ordinario was kept safe by Edmundo Ordinario, driver of the black Hyundai Starex van (XFN-406) which followed the Sentra. He is reportedly a nephew of the trader.

Angeles exchanged shots with the suspects, took the dead Plopino from behind the Sentra’s wheel and brought Ordinario and Grande to the PDMMMC after the suspects fled in their motorcycles.

Initial investigation showed that at around 10:30 a.m., the suspects, mostly in their early 20s, waited in ambush.

As Ordinario, with Grande and Gabat on board the sentra driven by Plopino, slowed down at the corner of Sanchez street intersecting the busy M.H. del Pilar street, the suspects rained bullets on the convoy.

Plopino and Gabat died in the first volley of fire. The other bodyguard was killed while the women were wounded in the second volley.

The suspects then fled on their motorcycles toward an unknown direction.

The nephew alighted from the Starex, pulled the dead Plopino from the wheel and rushed Ordinario and Grande to the PDMMMC.