1 dead, 2 hurt in Abra riverside gun attack

BAGUIO CITY —  Authorities are hunting down gunmen who used automatic rifles, fired at a group of men on Tuesday evening, killing a villager and hurting two more beside a river in Sitio Burobor, Barangay Bangcagan, Bucay town in Abra.

Johnny Trinidad Marilag, 57, from Pagala, Bucay, died while his villagemate Arnold Anquillano Trinidad and Joshua Marquez from Poblacion, Tubo town were hurt.

Bucay town police said that Marilag, Trinidad and Marquez were drinking at a nipa hut beside the river in  Barangay Bangcagan, when unidentified gunmen fired and then fled onboard a motorcycle.

The victims were rushed to the Bucay District Hospital but Marilag was declared dead-on-arrival while the two others were transferred to the Abra Provincial Hospital for further treatment.

Initially, the latest gun-related violence in the province was seen as unrelated to local politics, but one of the victims was said to have been a former barangay official