Sexagenarian slain over land dispute

Land dispute drove a man to stab dead his 61-year-old cousin at sitio Bas, barangay Perelos, Carcar the other night.

The victim, Wilfredo Mancao, an old bachelor who worked as a tuba gatherer in the barangay, died from a stab wound in his lower left armpit and another in his breast.

Carcar investigator, SPO3 Jonas Pananganan, said the suspected killer was Gomer Wamar, also a bachelor residing in the same place, who was a cousin of the victim. Wamar escaped after the killing and is now still at-large.

Pananganan said that Mancao was sitting on a chair outside his sister's store at about 7pm when attacked. Mancao, after the first stabbing, ran toward the store but was unable to enter because its door was locked. Wamar caught up with him and finished him off.

The police said the possible cause on the killing was about the land that Mancao inherited from his parents. A basketball court had been built on this lot already.

Wamar, sensing that Mancao was about to subdivide the lot to his two sisters, asked Mancao to donate the property instead to him. Mancao refused and this angered Wamar.

Meanwhile in Argao town Sunday afternoon, an altercation between two drinking buddies resulted in the killing of one of them.

Police said the victim was Primo Gemarino, of Ronda town, while the suspect was identified as Carlos Villamor, of Lapu-Lapu City but residing at barangay Cantularoy in Argao.

The two men just came from a birthday bash of Gemarino's sister in barangay Apo, Argao and both were already drunk on their way home at about 2pm.

Argao policeman, PO1 Rodrigo Teo, said that while walking they got into a heated altercation for still undetermined topic that resulted in a fistfight between the two.

When Gemarino fell, Villamor got a large piece of a coconut trunk and battered the victim's head with it. The impact might be so heavy that Gemarino's face got deformed and his skull broke with the brain spilling out.

Gemarino's sister, Jocelyn, was the lone witness to the killing while Villamor is still at large. - Norvie S. Misa/RAE