Vizcaya trader’s 2 aides waylaid

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — An aide of a wealthy businessman here was killed and his companion was critically wounded when unidentified men ambushed them yesterday morning.

Chief Inspector Johnny Baguidudol, an intelligence officer of the provincial police, said Glicerio Puna, 32, a caretaker of a gamecock farm, was shot in the head, while his pal, Dominador Navarro, 35, had bullet wounds in the chest and shoulder.

Both Puna and Navarro were aides of businessman Jolly Zapata, who owns several gasoline stations in the province.

Zapata, whose family runs the only cable television station in Bagabag town, faces murder charges for the killing of Henry Afalla, a former US Navy serviceman, in Solano town last Dec. 9.

Puna and Navarro were on board Zapata’s Mitsubishi Wagon when the occupants of a tinted Honda Civic fired at them in front of a gasoline station in Barangay Quirino, Bagabag town.

They had just dropped off Zapata and his companions at the cockpit arena here, some 15 kilometers from where they were waylaid.

Baguidudol said it was possible that the ambushers were after Zapata who they thought was inside the vehicle.

Also charged in Afalla’s killing were provincial board member Clemente Bacani; Sidioc Uy, former chairman of Barangay Quirino in Solano; Melonie Bacani-Afalla, the murder victim’s estranged wife and Bacani’s eldest sister; and two John Does.