Cordillera trader seized, murdered

TUBA, Benguet — When a businessman is kidnapped and killed, can the Cordilleras, as police claim, still be the safest place to live in?

Adjudged the best regional command, the Cordillera police now finds itself at a loss over the fate of Eufemio Gonzalo, 41, owner of a gravel and sand supply store in La Trinidad, Benguet, who was snatched Wednesday night and found dead five hours later.

Gonzalo and his driver, Wilmar Malibak, 22, were abducted by six armed men along a stretch of the La Trinidad-Long-long-Baguio Road.

Earlier that day, the kidnappers went to Gonzalo’s store and purchased sand. Two of them accompanied the trader and his driver to deliver it and asked that they take the Tam-awan-Long-long-Trinidad route.

But upon reaching Barangay Puguis in La Trinidad, the kidnappers’ cohorts aboard an L-300 van flagged them down. They shot Malibak and dragged Gonzalo to their vehicle.

Gonzalo was found dead with a gunshot wound in the right temple in an abandoned house in Taloy Sur here five hours later.

Malibak, who was shot in the neck, said he can identify the kidnappers.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Men—doza earlier said that there have been more kidnappings reported in the provinces than in Metro Manila this year. — Artemio Dumlao