Family of 5 massacred, 2 neighbors wounded

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines – A couple, their two minor daughters and the father’s sister were killed when unidentified men strafed their house at Barangay Victory in Calbayog City of Samar at around 10 a.m. last Tuesday. Two of their neighbors were also wounded.

Report from responding policemen identified the fatalities as the Regulacion family — Sonny, 48, his wife Adela, 48, their daughters, two-year-old Angela Mae and five-year-old Princess Joy, and Sonny’s sister 26-year-old Christina, who was cooking lunch when hit by a bullet from an M16 armalite rifle.

The injured victims were identified as Marlyn Nayangga and Wendy Maglayo, the neighbors of the slain family and are now confined at the Saint Camillus Hospital in Calbayog.

Unconfirmed reports said that Sonny Regulacion was a political leader of Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino and believed to be the primary target of the attackers.

The incident happened days after Samar Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento assumed office as the Interior and Local Government secretary. Sarmiento had appealed to Calbayognons to support the anti-criminality campaign of the police and military to stop the series of killings in the province, most of which were politically related.

Police Regional Office-8 Regional Director, Chief Superintendent Asher Dolina, immediately sent a team to investigate the massacre. He also expressed dismay that, despite the presence of policemen and soldiers in the province, the killings continued.

"This is so disappointing, but my men headed by the Samar Police Provincial Director, Senior Superintendent Elmer Pelobello, are there. Let us see what we can do about this latest shooting incident. We are still trying to find out who are behind this crime; so far wala pa tayong leads," Dolina told The FREEMAN in an exclusive interview.

It may be recalled that, only last month, the police have yet to resolve a shooting incident in another village of Calbayog where two were killed and two others were seriously wounded.

Police data revealed that a total of 86 persons were killed in Calbayog’s shooting incidents in a span of 11 months, from November 2014 to September this year.

Mayor Aquino, for his part, condemned the massacre of the Regulacion family, including innocent children.