In Guihulngan; DepEd-Negros employee shot dead

CEBU, Philippines - An administrative assistant of the Department of Education-Negros Oriental was shot dead around 11:38 a.m. yesterday at Barangay Poblacion in Guihulngan City, in front of the testing center where the national assessment exams for students were going on.

Superintendent Bonifacio Tecson, Guihulngan’s OIC chief of police, identified the victim as Oscar Solania Asildo Jr. a married resident of sitio Bateria in Barangay Poblacion, and worked as a finance administrative assistant of the DepEd.

Tecson said initial investigation disclosed that, while Asildo was onboard his car, two unidentified men came up to him and, without provocation, shot him several times on the body.

The assailants then fled toward the seaside on a car, while the victim was rushed to the Guihulngan District Hospital where the attending physician however declared him dead on arrival.

DepEd-Negros Assistant Regional Director Salustiano Jimenez, after receiving the report from his district supervisor in Guihulngan, said most of the examinees out of fear did not report back to the testing center yesterday afternoon.

There were insinuations that the killing of Asildo may be done by the New People’s Army, but Jimenez believed that teachers should not be the targets of the rebels, although he urged the DepEd personnel, particularly those with spouses who are members of the PNP and the military, to take extra precautions for security reasons.

Senior Superintendent Henry Biñas, director of the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office, said investigations are going on, especially on the ambush-killing of six policemen in Guihulngan City. Some witnesses have become uncooperative due to threats to their lives, he said.

The killing of Asildo was the fifth shooting incident in Guihulngan since August 25, when 60-year-old Eugene Sibomit, a former CAFGU member, was attacked by at least five armed men while he was harvesting coconuts at Barangay Sandayao. He survived with a gunshot wound on his shoulder.

On August 26, two shooting incidents took place in Guihulngan: One at Barangay McKinley at 5:15 a.m. when Estrellita Estandarte, 47, was shot dead by riding-in-tandem assailants; and in the evening when Joey Pacunla, 19, was shot and wounded by men on a motorcycle. Pacunla was brought to a hospital in Dumaguete City.

At 7:30 a.m. on August 29, five men shot dead Arcadio Jurado, a 56-year-old farmer, at Barangay Binobohan in Guihulngan. Police said the victim was pasturing his carabao when the assailants, masked with bonnets and clad in farmer’s clothes, appeared and fired shots at him.

The wounded Jurado managed himself to ran, but he fell on the ground after about 500 meters away. The attackers gave chase and pulled him to a hilly portion where they fired more shots and killed him on the spot. (FREEMAN)