Barangay captain, police sergeant gunned down in Nueva Ecija

CABANATUAN CITY – A barangay chairman and a police sergeant were gunned down in two separate shooting incidents in Nueva Ecija yesterday and last Sunday.

Senior Superintendent Napoleon Taas, provincial director of the Philippine National Police identified the victims as Marcos Soriano, barangay chairman of Barangay Barlis in this city and Senior Police Officer 2 Melencio dela Vega of Aliaga, Nueva Ecija.

Soriano was sitting on a bench with his wife in a bingo stall in Barangay Mayapyap Norte in this city when a lone gunman shot him from point-blank range at around 12:15 a.m. yesterday.

Soriano was hit in the right cheek and was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead-on-arrival.

The still unidentified gunman then walked casually towards a black motorcycle driven by a companion and sped away.

In Aliaga, Dela Vega, who was assigned at the PNP General Headquarters in Camp Crame, was felled by assassin’s bullets while playing tong-its, a popular card game at the house of Marlin Drona in Barangay San Emiliano at around 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

Senior Inspector Raymundo Valera, Aliaga police chief, said that Dela Vega was with two other companions when two gunmen armed with short firearms accosted him and fired from close range, hitting him thrice in the head.

The suspects fled on foot towards the municipal cemetery and boarded a motorcycle and sped towards Talavera town.

A team from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) recovered four bullets shells from .45 caliber pistol.

Dela Vega is the second lawmen to have been killed in the province in less than a month. On April 7, a man fired at PO1 Michael Arellano while the latter was conducting a legitimate operation in Talavera, Nueva Ecija.