ILOILO CITY—Drugs and a business feud were among motives being studied by investigators in two cases of assassinations in this city on Sunday.
The city police had directed all units and men to increase police visibility and patrols but sought to play down the attacks on broad daylight as isolated and unrelated cases.
Mayor Jerry Treñas has, however, ordered police to speed up investigations on the gangland-style executions which took place at the start of weeklong activities for the world-famous Dinagyang Festival.
Col. Martin Defensor Jr., Iloilo City police chief, said the killing of Alain Muller and Delfin Britanico minutes apart appeared unrelated and their occurrence almost simultaneously was just “coincidence.”
Muller was gunned down near his house along a street at the village of Cuartero in Jaro District shortly before noon by assailants on a Mitsubishi Adventure. At least two suspects fired repeatedly at the target.
Muller died at the Western Visayas Medical Center where he was rushed after the attack.
Investigators are determining if his killing was drug-related as his younger brother, Mark, had been gunned down by motorcycle-riding assassins in August 2019, months after declaring himself a drug suspect to authorities in a bid to reform.
Past noon of Sunday, armed men on van opened fire at Britanico, a businessman, as he drove his motorcycle at the village of Nabitasan in La Paz District.
Defensor said the gun attack was initially thought to be an offshoot of a traffic altercation after Britanico and his killers were heard or seen arguing.
But a relative of Britanico told investigators that the businessman had called minutes before the attack to report he was being tailed by suspicious-looking men.
Security in the city was supposedly tightened in preparation for Dinagyang which draws hundreds of thousands of spectators, both devotees and kibitzers.
Edited by TSB