Men on motorcyle attack 4 in multi-cab; 1 dead, 1 hurt

A 24-year-old man died while his 29-year-old companion was wounded in a shooting at Ybañez Compound in barangay Mambaling Monday afternoon.

Police reports said the two were with another passenger on a multi-cab, driven by Gilbert Abella, and were on their way home when two men on a blue motorcycle came abreast and fired shots at them.

The fatality was Glenn Gaballo, a resident of sitio Puntod in the same barangay, who was hit twice in the head. His companion Marinel Quijote, a widow and a businesswoman engaged in supplying eggs to the market, was shot in the stomach but survived.

Abella, the driver, was left unhurt while the fourth passenger, Jim Romarate, who was reportedly the live-in partner of Quijote, managed to alight from the multi-cab and run to hide in a house at the interior part of the sitio.

Witnesses told the police that the gunman, upon seeing Romarate fled from the multi-cab, disembarked from the motorcycle to chase while firing several shots at Romarate. The gunman however missed hitting the latter.

The attackers then left the area shortly before PO1s Edsel Relecto and Felipe Lagonoy, of the Mobile Patrol Group, arrived.

Homicide investigators surmised that the attack might be related to the killing of Quijote's husband, Wenceslao, inside his house at sitio Alaska in barangay Mambaling last December 21.

SPO3 Dennis Moga told The Freeman that Romarate and Quijote have pending cases in court for murder and parricide, respectively, for the stabbing to death of Wenceslao.

"Ang mga relative sa bana ni Quijote nga kadtong gipatay nagtuo gyud nga si Romarate maoy suspek, lately lang nahibaw-an nila nga nag-live in na si Romarate ug Quijote," Moga said.

Policemen have recovered a shell of a 9-mm bullet from the crime scene but they have yet to identify the assailants. - Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE