COA not shooter’s target – QCPD

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Audit (COA) is not the target of a shooting in the area last Wednesday, Quezon City’s top police official told President Aquino yesterday.

Aquino talked to Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano on the sidelines of the wake of First Lt. Francis Damian and asked if the attack was targeted at the COA. 

“I told the President it wasn’t,” Albano told reporters in an interview. 

There had been speculation that the COA was targeted because of its audit reports on the pork barrel scam. 

Albano based his assessment on statements of witnesses who heard four shots on the other side of Commonwealth Avenue before the slugs were found in two offices at the COA compound.  Two windowpanes were destroyed when what were believed be stray bullets landed on the COA building on the other side of the avenue.

Albano also reasoned that if the COA was meant to be strafed, a rifle would have been used and more shots would have been fired.  Based on the slugs, a revolver was believed to have been used.

A witness had pointed to a gunman, riding a motorcycle driven by an accomplice, firing shots at two targets on the road. A small bullet crater was also found on the other side of Commonwealth Avenue where the shots were believed to have been fired. 

Aquino ordered Albano to locate the gunman. According to Albano, they were still trying to locate the targets as a way to determine the identity of the gunman.