Two incidents, one after the other, have raised concern about public safety in this country. The other night the wife of lawyer Raymond Fortun was shot and critically wounded as she got out of her car in front of her house in a gated village in Las Piñas. Caroline Fortun survived a gunshot to the cheek that exited through her neck.
Yesterday, also in southern Metro Manila, gunmen staged a more daring attack, hitting a town mayor in broad daylight as he prepared to leave the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 upon his arrival from Cebu. Mayor Ukol Talumpa of Labangan town in Zamboanga del Sur was killed along with his wife Lea and nephew Salipudin Talumpa. The hail of bullets hit even those who were not with Talumpa: 18-month-old Gil Thomas Lirasan was killed and the boy’s mother was among the wounded.
The mayor and his companions had just stepped out of the NAIA-3 building at around 11:15 a.m. when two men on a motorcycle pulled up and sprayed them with small-arms fire. Police recovered 17 caliber .45 bullet shells.
The NAIA is supposed to be heavily secured, with checkpoints at the entrance to each terminal. Investigators said the killers apparently managed to enter with their guns by wearing police uniforms. There is, of course, the possibility that the killers were in fact police moonlighting as hired guns.
Police said Ukol had survived two previous attempts on his life. Politics or a blood feud were eyed as the motive, but there’s no certainty since the attempts have not been solved. That failure surely emboldened those responsible for yesterday’s murders to stage the hit at a crowded airport at the height of the Christmas passenger rush.
Police are also reportedly facing a blank wall in the attack on Fortun’s wife. Fortun is handling several high-profile cases, making it difficult to trace the motive for the attack. A tearful Fortun said his wife had no known enemies and he was sure he was the target. This can be established only if the gunmen are caught.