Biñan exec shot dead

BIÑAN, Laguna — The municipal administrator here was killed while his security escort was critically wounded in an ambush staged by three armed men riding in tandem on a motorcycle along a narrow road in Barangay Canlalay, Tuesday night.

Joselito Sigua, 46, of Filinvest Subdivision, Barangay Tubigan, and owner of a security agency, was declared dead on arrival at the Perpetual Help Medical Center here due to multiple gunshot wounds in his head and body.

Sigua’s security escort, Alfredo Magbitang, 43, of Barangay San Jose, sustained multiple gunshot wounds in his abdomen and is now fighting for his life at the same hospital.

SPO3 Godofredo Rivelleza, case investigator, said Sigua and Magbitang were traveling in a gray Toyota Starex van, shortly after leaving the municipal building about a kilometer from the crime scene, when two armed men, who had just alighted from a motorcycle, shot them at close range along San Francisco Road, some few meters across the railroad tracks and about 20 meters away from the national highway in Barangay Canlalay.

Rivelleza said that Sigua was driving the van, with plate number WJR 372, while Magbitang was seated on the right side of the front seat.

Rivelleza said that according to witnesses, the two gunwielders were able to approach the Starex van on foot due to a traffic jam caused by the narrow road.

Rivelleza said that Sigua, although wounded, was able to drive the van away for about 30 meters from their attackers but the car crashed into the steel gate of a house, giving a chance to the two pursuing assassins to pump more bullets into his head.

He said that after the incident, the killers boarded the same motorcycle driven by another man and fled westward.

The van’s right glass windows were shattered while several bullets pierced the van’s right side.

A live ammunition and empty shells of 9 mm pistol were found at the crime scene.

Police could not yet firm up the motives behind the killing since Sigua has no known enemies.