Nephew of slain Batangas town vice mayor killed in ambush

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines—At least four persons, including a nephew of a local politician killed in Metro Manila last December, were killed in two separate but apparently related shooting incidents in the towns of Talisay and Tanauan in Batangas Tuesday morning, police said.

Senior Insp. Manuel Maligaya, Talisay police chief, identified the two fatalities in an ambush at around 7:45 a.m. in Barangay Tumaway, as Danny Omania and Joel Caringal. Police said the unidentified killers were themselves killed by pursing policemen in the town of Tanauan an hour later.

Maligaya said police had yet to establish the motive for the attack on Omania, a nephew of Talisay Vice Mayor Florencio Manimtim Jr., who was himself killed in a mall in Pasay City last December.

Senior Superintendent Rosauro Asio, Batangas provincial police director, said the two gunmen in the killing of Omania and Caringal  were escaping in a Mitsubishi Lancer sedan when they figured in a shootout with  police in Barangay Pagaspas in Tanauan at around 8:30 a.m.

Recovered from the slain gunmen were a .357 gun found inside the vehicle, an armalite rifle, and a pistol of unknown caliber tucked in the waist of one of them, Asio said.