Soldier killed in shooting outside Leyte cockpit

TACLOBAN CITY—A soldier was killed while another was wounded on Tuesday afternoon when a lone gunman shot them while they were outside a cockpit at a remote village of Carigara town in Leyte.

Private First Class Alvie Felix, 29, was sitting outside the arena in Barangay (village) Candigahub, seven kilometers away from the town center, when the gunman shot him at the back of his head.

His companion, PFC John Carlo Setarios, was hit in the left arm and managed to shoot back at the gunman but missed.

It was not clear what the two soldiers, who were not in uniform, were doing in the cockpit at 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday but the killing happened a day before the fiesta of Barangay Candigahub.

The cockfight was authorized by the Municipal Council through Resolution No. 2017-120 dated April 26, 2017, in celebration with their annual fiesta.

The two soldiers belonged to the Alpha Company of the 78th Infantry Battalion based in Barangay Tiunaguban, adjacent to Candigahub.

Recovered from the crime scene were two pieces of empty shells of caliber .9mm and three empty shells of caliber .45.

The victims were brought to Rural Health Unit of Carigara where Felix was pronounced dead on arrival by the attending physician. Setarios was later brought to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center in Tacloban City.