Shooting incidents kill 2, injure 2

CEBU, Philippines - A woman died while her spouse who works as a caretaker of a protected area in the mountain barangay of Taptap, Cebu City was injured after their house was shot out yesterday morning.

Victim, Joan Caballes, 24, died immediately while her live-in partner, Prudencio Llamendo, 34, survived with three gunshot wounds.  The couple's two sons, aged three and one, survived unscathed.

The family was having breakfast inside a makeshift house utilized as a detachment for forest rangers when unidentified men opened fire at their house in sitio San Miguel at 5:00 in the morning.

Llamendo, a caretaker of a forest protected area reportedly owned by a retired general, was hit on his right arm and left shoulder while Caballes was hit twice on her waistline.

Llamendo was rushed to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center while his live-in partner died on the spot.

SPO3 Rey Cuyos of the Homicide Section said they are yet to determine the motive behind the incident.

Cuyos surmised that the incident may have something to do with Llamendo's job.

"Caretaker man siya so mamadlong sad na siya diha. Although naa gyu'y mga forest rangers, pero mamadlong sad siya og apil. Dako man gud nang yutaa diha," he said.

Cuyos said they have also talked with the victim at the hospital but Llamendo allegedly had no idea yet who was behind the incident.

The children are now in the custody of their grand-mother, according to Llamendo.

In Minglanilla, a 43-year-old construction worker was shot dead by his own brother amid a heated altercation in sitio Bayong, Barangay Cadulawan last Saturday  evening.

Cirilo Latorza succumbed to gunshot wound in his right arm with the bullet exited at his right breast.

Police arrested Marino Latorza, 60, and his son, Gimar, 24, right after the incident and confiscated from them was an improvised shotgun with one empty shell.

PO2 Vincent Aliñabon, desk officer, said that Cirilo had a drinking session with his friend and decided to go to his brother's (Marino) house a few meters away to have a confrontation which resulted to a verbal tussle.

It was at this point when Gimar arrived and saw Cirilo punched his father on the face and  took his improvised shotgun and shot his uncle, Cirilo, once.

Police are now preparing criminal charges against the suspects.

Also on Saturday evening, a 46-year-old municipal employee of  Balamban town was also shot by unidentified assailant on board a motorcycle  along the national highway of  Barangay Cantuod, Balamban.

Rogelio Brabante was driving the municipal-owned Honda XRM motorcycle (SF 1271) on his way home when assailant tailed the victim. Upon reaching at a dim portion of the road, the man in pillion shot Brabante several times hitting him in different parts of his body causing him to slump on the road.

Brabante was then taken to Balamban Provincial Hospital and was later transferred to a hospital in Cebu City for further medical treatment. — (FREEMAN)