Masbate mayor’s live-in partner shot dead, sis wounded in Cebu ambush

CEBU CITY, Philippines – A live-in partner of a Masbate municipal mayor was killed while the town’s councilor was wounded in an ambush shortly after they arrived in this city early Monday morning, a police official said.

Councilor Leny Betonio-Eser of Pio V. Corpuz town in Masbate and Cristina Lauro, 39, were on board a taxi past 5 a.m. when one of two men riding a motorcycle fired at them at V. Sotto and S. Osmeña streets in Cebu City.

SPO1 Victor Ayuman, Cebu City homicide investigator, said Lauro was a live-in partner of Mayor Hermigildo Betonio III of Pio V. Corpuz town while Eser was the mayor’s sister.

He said the two women arrived from Masbate on a vessel that docked at Pier 3 in Cebu City past 5 a.m.

The two women then boarded a taxi that was supposed to take them to Talisay City, about 12 kilometer south of Cebu City.

Lauro and Mayor Betonio own a house in a subdivision in Talisay, Ayuman said.

The taxi stopped on a red light at the corner of V. Sotto and S. Osmeña when one of the two assailants shot at them from behind.

A bullet hit Lauro in the back of the head which exited her temple and another pierced her heart through the left chest, said Ayuman.

Eser was hit in the right palm, he added.

The two women were brought to a private hospital in Cebu City where Lauro was pronounced dead on arrival.

Police investigators later found at the crime scene three empty shells and a slug of a .45 cal. pistol.