Pangasinan broadcaster's nurse-daughter slain

DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – A 26-year-old nurse-daughter of a female broadcaster here was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding men while on her way home yesterday morning.

The victim, Zharlene Yadao, daughter of Noli Yadao and Susan Yadao of Aksyon Radyo Pangasinan based here, was walking from the Medical Centrum about a kilometer from her home when she was gunned down.

Autopsy conducted by Dr. Benjamin Bautista of the city health office showed that the young Yadao sustained a one-centimeter injury on her head and a gunshot wound in the left shoulder.

Bautista said the bullet from a caliber .38 pierced her left and right lungs, and then the liver and kidney, where the slug was removed.

“The bullet penetrated far. It had no exit,” he said in Filipino.

Bautista said Yen-yen, as the victim was fondly called, might have been hit first with the nozzle of the gun before she was shot, killing her instantly as evidenced by many blood clots in her body.

Yen-yen’s mother said her daughter received text messages threatening to kill her last Monday.

She said she knows who sent the text messages but declined to elaborate so as not to preempt the police investigation.

She, meanwhile, assailed a policeman who instead of rushing her daughter to the nearest hospital, quickly called a funeral parlor first.

Superintendent Luis Mariano Verzosa Jr., city police chief, promised to look into this allegation.

Verzosa said he has formed a special team to look into the killing, adding that they would invite witnesses who saw the Honda TMX 155 motorcycle used by the gunmen.

He said probers were eyeing robbery because Yen-yen’s cellular phones were taken by her attackers, although her wallet containing more than P2,000 was intact.

Verzosa cited past cases of motorcycle-riding men grabbing bags of pedestrians especially at dawn.

Pangasinan third district Rep. Ma. Rachel Arenas said she is alarmed by the spate of killings in the province, particularly in her district.

Last week, she wrote Senior Superintendent Percival Barba, provincial police director, to express her concern about these incidents, whose victims included four government officials in her turf.

Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. said he has instructed the police to double their efforts to solve Yen-yen’s killing.

For his part, Gov. Amado Espino Jr. instructed the Special Operations Group to beef up the city police as the killers are being hunted, saying these criminals should not go scot-free and sow fear among Pangasinenses. – With Cesar Ramirez