Police said the killing of Prima Paquibot Aying, a worker of Maitland Smith Inc., an export firm at the Mactan Economic Zone, may have stemmed from a family feud involving her husband, Jerry, and parties involved in drug dealing.
The mother was hit in the forehead by bullets as she tried to run upstairs where her children were sleeping.
There were seven in the household, when the attack took place at about 3 a.m. in barangay Buaya.
Her husband Jerome, 55, said he recognized the voice of the man who called out his name outside the house and saw two of the gunmen run off.
He identified them as Demetrio “Onyot” Malingin and his brother Jay, both of Saac, Barangay Buaya.
Demetrio is the subject of an arrest warrant for murder.
Inspector Zenaido Pastorfide, chief of the Lapu-Lapu City homicide section, said there was an ongoing “blood feud” between the Aying and the Malingin families.
A brother of the suspects was killed last year and Demetrio retaliated by killing Jerry’s brother, Roy, last November.
He said Jerry had threatened to kill the Malingin siblings but decided to file murder charges against Demetrio.
Judge Wilfredo Fiel Navarro of Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court Branch 53 issued on Feb. 18, 2012 an arrest warrant against Demetrio for the murder of Roy. Demetrio went into hiding after the warrant was issued.
Chief Inspector Conrado Manatad said Demetrio Malingin was involved in the drug trade, and was identified with the group of Alex Oyao, a known drug figure who was killed in a shootout with police last March.
In a statement to the police, Jerry said he and his family were sleeping in the house when they were roused by Demetrio’s voice repeatedly calling out his name.
He said his wife stood up, turned on the light and opened the door. But she immediately shut the door when she saw that Demetrio and his companions were armed.
His wife then ran upstairs as bullets ripped through their glass windows but she was hit in the head.
Aying was rushed to the Lapu-Lapu District Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Her husband Jerry was able to crawl behind a concrete wall.
“She was worried about the children sleeping upstairs. That’s why she was in a hurry to go up,” he said about his wife.
Homicide investigators recovered from the scene 13 empty shells and eight slugs from a .45 cal. pistol./Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan with Norman Mendoza and Fe Marie Dumaboc