Bicol mining company owner killed in Laguna ambush

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna, Philippines—The owner of a gold mining company in Camarines Norte was killed while his female companion was wounded when unidentified men sprayed bullets on their vehicle in Calamba City, Laguna, early Thursday.

Police identified the victim as Arnel Elnar, owner of the Elnar Gold Processing plant in Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte.

Elnar was pronounced dead on arrival at the Calamba Medical Center while his companion, Charmaine Faith Vigo, was wounded but survived the attack.

Vigo is a clerk at a gasoline station in Calamba but resides Cabuyao City, Laguna.

Superintendent Leovegildo Manaig, Calamba police chief, said in a report that the victims had just left a local motel in a Toyota Fortuner in Barangay Turbina when they were waylaid at around 6 a.m. by men in a gray Toyota Corolla car (TXH-806).

Two unidentified men alighted from the car and fired several shots into the victims’ vehicle, Manaig said.

Two policemen, who happened to be at a nearby gasoline station waiting for their ride to work, responded to the shooting and fired shots at the assailants, who managed to escape in their car toward Batangas province.

Investigators were pursuing possible business rivalry as a motive for the attack, said Manaig.

Manaig, quoting a close friend of Elnar, said there was an incident in the past when someone threw a grenade at and fired on Elnar’s residence in Camarines Norte.

Elnar also owned a house in Los Baños, Laguna, according to Manaig.