Businessman gunned down

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — A businessman was shot dead by a lone gunman on the north national highway at barangay Campaclan in Sibulan town yesterday morning. 

Police identified the victim as Demetrio Larena III, 65, a widower and resident of San Antonio Village in Sibulan. He died on the spot due to gunshot wounds on the head.

Initial investigation showed the victim got two bullet wounds, one on his forehead and another near his right ear, indicating that he could have been shot at close range.

Two policemen on board a Ceres Liner bus that passed by the area responded to the scene and engaged the suspects in a brief firefight. The suspects quickly fled on foot and commandered a motorcycle from a civilian as their getaway vehicle.

PO3 Crisanto Garet, Jr., told reporters that he and his companion, a certain PO1 Fabres, were going to report for work at their respective units in the northern part of the province when they heard gunshots along the highway. They told the bus driver to stop, alighted from the bus and ran a few meters toward the crime scene where they exchanged fire with the suspects.

SOCO initially reported having recovered nine spent shells of .45 caliber bullet scattered at the crime scene, and an empty shell of a 9-mm caliber inside the SUV of the victim.

One of the witnesses, Rene Boy Daig, 43, a resident of Brgy. Magatas in Sibulan, told the police that the escaping suspects took his motorcycle at gunpoint shortly after the shooting incident. A police report later said the commandered motorcycle was found abandoned around noontime at Brgy. Malabo in Valencia town.

Police are still conducting hot pursuit operations to track down the suspects who were believed to be holed up somewhere in the mountains of Valencia. - THE FREEMAN