Isabela businessman shot dead

ROXAS, Isabela – Authorities are still clueless as to the motive and the identities of the suspects behind the killing of a businessman and relative of a local political family, who was shot dead in front of a shopping center here Thursday evening.

Police said that investigations are still ongoing as to the motive and identities of the suspects and possible brains in the killing of 44-year-old Bonifacio Nuesa, who succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds by a lone gunman in front of the Power Shopping Mall here around 8 p.m. Thursday.

According to Chief Inspector Antonio Marallag, provincial police intelligence officer, Nuesa was with his wife and two children, who had just came from the shopping mall’s Jollibee  center when the gunman suddenly appeared from nowhere, and without any notice   shot him at close range.

Marallag said that responding policemen recovered at least three spent shells of 9mm pistol. Initial investigations show that the gunman had two other companions who served as lookouts, and who hurriedly fetched him after the shooting on board a motorcycle. 

A local banker and cousin of former three-term mayor Benedict Calderon here whose father is also a former provincial board member, Nuesa also owns vast tracts of agricultural and commercial lands in the province.

Calderon said that even months before the incident, his cousin was already receiving a series of death threats through text messages from unknown sources.

He said his cousin was asking for help because of the said repeated death treats amid the reported still unresolved tenant-land owner disputes involving the victim’s landholdings. – Charlie Lagasca