Bishop condemns Bacolod trader’s slay

BACOLOD CITY — Church and government officials have condemned the killing of a businessman inside church grounds on Tuesday night.

Bacolod Bishop Patricio Buzon said he was appealing to authorities to catch the perpetrators who shot and killed Alex Yap Yao.

Yao, 57, and his wife, Maria Theresa, 56, had just boarded their Mercedes-Benz after attending a prayer meeting at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Shrine (Redemptorist Church) at Barangay 5 here when an unidentified gunman on board a motorcycle shot them.

Yao was killed while his wife was wounded.

Buzon described the killing of Yao inside the Redemptorist Church compound as a “deplorable act.”

The Bacolod City Council also condemned the killing of Yao and asked police for a thorough investigation.

Bacolod Councilor Dindo Ramos said the killing of Yao was alarming since similar cases in the past remained unsolved.

He said an ordinance banning two persons aboard a motorcycle from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. had not been fully enforced.

Ramos said when Senior Supt. Francisco Ebreo was still Bacolod police chief, the ordinance had been strictly enforced.