Leyte landowner gunned down

KANANGA, Leyte — Two men claiming to be members of an armed farmers’ group shot dead a landowner inside his residential compound here on New Year’s Day, authorities said.

Police said Francisco Fontanosa, 56, was found dead with four gunshot wounds in the head and his hands tied, in an unlit area beside his house.

Fontanosa’s wife Joy told police that she and her husband were watching television when they heard their dogs barking.

She said he went out of their house to check why the dogs were barking, and several minutes later, she heard what seemed to be firecracker explosions.

When the "explosions" stopped, she said a man, his face covered with a black ski mask, barged into their home.

The man identified himself as a member of the Samahan sa mga Gudti na Parag-uma (Sagupa), an armed farmers’ group reportedly allied with the New People’s Army, and told Mrs. Fontanosa that they had tied up her husband at the public cemetery.

She said the man then extorted money from her, explaining that they knew that her husband sold a portion of his land in Barangay Natubgan last month for P30,000.

Mrs. Fontanosa said she told the man that they had no more money left because of their huge expenses during the town fiesta last Dec. 12 and the holidays.

A son of the Fontanosas heard the discourse, and offered to the man the P100 his ninong (godfather) gave him. The man got the money and left, along with a companion, aboard a habal-habal (motorcycle for hire).

Mrs. Fontanosa reported the incident to the police. They went to the public cemetery but did not find Fontanosa there, as the ski mask-wearing man claimed.

After much search, police finally found Fontanosa’s body inside the family’s compound.

The habal-habal driver, Joemar Solano, 23, told probers the two men merely hired his motorcycle, first on the night of Dec. 30 when they apparently surveyed the Fontanosa residence.

On the night of Jan. 1, Solano said he drove the two to the Fontanosas’ place again. While waiting for them, he said he heard "explosions," too, and that he was unaware of what was happening inside the victim’s compound.