Guns-for-hire in Negros?

Hired guns? It does seem that some gunmen have been making themselves available to patrons in Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental.

That’s a matter of serious concern and something that the police must be able to address fast. Lately, there has been a series of killings in Dumaguete City that seems to point to the possibility of vigilantes operating there, and so with Bacolod.

The latest in Bacolod was the mysterious killing of a German national, Klaus Jergen Porschwitz, who was found dead last Friday in his residence with a gunshot wound in the head.

Netty Silva, his live-in partner, claimed to have discovered Porschwitz lying on the garage floor where an empty caliber .45 pistol was recovered.

Porschwitz, 57, first came to Bacolod in 1992. Police said he could have been killed by a gun-for-hire.

His first wife, who had left the German national eight years ago, also appealed to the public for possible witnesses.

But the more baffling death was that of pediatrician-allergologist Dr. Ambrosio Miguel “Ami” Madamba who was gunned down outside the Sta. Monica Resort in Dumaguete City.

Alex Pal of the Visayan Daily STAR in Dumaguete City reported that the police had invited 40-year-old Rey Concepcion, reportedly a Tanjay councilor on his third and last term.

Police, however, said they still do not have any basis to charge Concepcion for Madamba’s murder.

But Concepcion is reportedly a partner of Madamba in a money lending business. This is in Tanjay City, some 30 kilometers north of Dumaguete.

A perusal of Madamba’s cell phone showed that he and Concepcion were supposed to meet over dinner Sunday evening. Concepcion, however, failed to show up.

Madamba, 58, single, is a brother of former APEC party-list Rep. Sunny Rose Madamba.

Police, however, received a phone call from Tanjay Vice Mayor Nilo Tam who asked them to explore other angles such as the malpractice case filed against Madamba before the Professional Regulatory Commission.

Well, so far, that’s the progress report on the Madamba murder which could lead up to the pile of unsolved murder cases in Dumaguete City.

Medical missions

Sometimes, one finds out that despite the global financial meltdown, a lot of local residents find themselves comforted by the outreach by medical and paramedical personnel from abroad.

This was the case of 2,000 indigent patients in Barangays Cabug and Banao in Bacolod City recently.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia lauded the members of the Korean Medical Mission, headed by Prof. Sun Jun Kim, for their free medical services and medicine for some 2,000 residents of the two barangays.

The group was made up of two surgeons and 12 medical students who came from Jeonju City in Korea.

But there was another group, this time from Toronto, Canada. It was led by Zeny Palacios Gepilano and Urban Angels of St. Michael’s Hospital.

The group, dubbed as the Canada Medical Mission, extended free medical services and distributed free medicine and eyeglasses to 500 less privileged families in the barangays of La Carlota City.

The Canadian team was supported by Class ’59 of La Carlota High School headed by president Ramon Brizuela and vice president Nenita Gabrido, and the La Carlota City government headed by Mayor Demie John Honrado.

In short, there are always philantrophic groups which despite the global financial meltdown continue to reach out to their less fortunate brothers in the developing societies.

That’s a comforting sight during these crisis moments in our country. Thank God for the Koreans and the Canadians and their Filipino supporters.