NBI joins probe on Lozada ambush

The National Bureau of Investigation has started a probe into the ambush last Thursday night of a 48-year-old hotel worker, his daughter and her schoolmate in Quezon City allegedly by a police squad which mistook them for kidnappers.

NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco told reporters yesterday that he was personally asked by the Philippine National Police to conduct a separate investigation of the incident to avoid suspicions of a "whitewash" in the investigations.

This, following reports that the suspects who shot to death Fernando Lozada, a resident of 49 Ferdinand St., Vista Verde Executive Village in Cainta, Rizal; daughter Clarissa Frances, 17, and friend Marian Unson, were alleged agents of the PNP’s Intelligence Group.

Lozada and Unson later died while undergoing medical treatment. Police said the still unidentified gunmen fled onboard two vehicles after the shooting.

Initial investigation showed that the incident occurred at about 8:20 p.m. while the victims were inside their car with plate number TKM-265, cruising along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City.

Lozada, chief steward of the New World Hotel, Clarissa and Unson were on their way home when they were flagged down by the gunmen, who were onboard two parked vehicles.

Lozada, who spotted the armed men, sensed trouble and sped-off. The suspects fired at the vehicle and pursued them triggering a high-speed chase which took them all the way to Maria Clara street in Barangay Sto. Domingo.

As the victims’ vehicle reached the area, the policemen again opened fire, hitting Lozada in the back of the neck. The victim’s car then crashed hard into a gutter.

At this point, the gunmen were not yet finished as they stopped right in front of the victims’ vehicle and sprayed bullets on it, killing Fernando. He was hit in different parts of the body. Unson also sustained a gunshot wound in the head.

The incident turned controversial after investigators of the Central Police District theorized that the victims could have been the subjects of a "mistaken identity." Probers theorized that the Intelligence Group operatives could have opened fire at the victims’ car thinking that they were suspects trying to elude arrest.

Meanwhile, Wycoco added that the NBI is studying the possibility of placing the victims’ family members under government protection after they had allegedly received death threats from unidentified telephone callers. – Mike Frialde