Fatal shooting mars Cebu cockfight

CEBU CITY — What was supposed to be an illegal cockfight or tigbakay in White Road, Inayawan the other day ended instead in a shooting that killed one of the cock owners and wounded another.

Marcelo Campugan, 52, was shot in the head, while Jovito Nacorda Jr., 19, was hit in the groin. But it was not clear who shot who.

One version had Campugan bringing along a fighting cock in the company of his nephew, Danilo Pandunganan. Both went to see Nacorda at his house to try and strike up a match with his fighting cock.

But the fighting cocks did not pair off well in size and after about 10 minutes of trying to reach a deal on a handicapped match, Campugan and Nacorda ended up arguing.

Campugan and Pandunganan eventually left but came back after a while.

At this point, shots rang out, and Pandunganan later told police he did not know who shot who because he had fled for cover.

When the smoke cleared, both Campugan and Nacorda were on the ground. Campugan was dead, shot in the back of the head, while Nacorda was agonizing with a shot in the groin.

Nacorda’s elder sister Malou offered police a different version of the incident.

Malou confirmed that Pandunganan came to see his brother with a fighting cock but was not in the company of Campugan as he had claimed but with another man she did not know.

Pandunganan and his companion tried to strike a match for his fighting cock with Nacorda’s and another brother, Arnold.

According to Malou, the four ended up arguing and the match was called off. Pandunganan and his companion left.

Later, Malou said Pandunganan came back, but this time with three more men in tow, one of whom was Campugan.

She said Pandunganan had a knife while the three other men were armed with guns.

As the group entered the gate of their house, Malou said one of them, whom she could not identify, shot Nacorda who was at the time fashioning something out of a carabao horn.

"They shot at my brother twice but missed. When he tried to flee, they ran after him, eventually hitting him," she said in Cebuano.

Another shot rang out, and Campugan crumpled to the ground with a bullet wound in his head.

Malou said she did not know who shot Campugan but acknowledged that the shot sounded as if it came from inside their house where the only people there were her father and younger sister. She insisted her father does not own a gun.

Pandunganan was eventually arrested but his companions fled upon learning that Campugan had been fatally shot. — Freeman News Service