Assailants tried to shoot anew; passenger an ‘LTO fixer’

A businesswoman  was shot dead in her van by two motorcycle-riding assailants about 6 p.m. last night in a busy road intersection of Mandaue City.

The victim was identified as Iris Hugo, 37, owner of the Mandaue-based Stockland International Furniture.

Hugo, who was driving a gray Starex van,  took a bullet in the head and died shortly after she was rushed to the Mandaue District Hospital, a few blocks away.

Three others in the vehicle were unharmed— Crisostomo Alcala, 39; Roel Relavo, 40, of  San Fernado town; and Irene Alcoba.

Police said Alcala was  a fixer in the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Mandaue whom they arrested in an entrapment operation last July 5 after a barangay councilor complained of being given fake documents.

The businesswoman was heading for her hometown in Argao, south Cebu, and had just picked up Alcala from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Mandaue.

Police said the vehicle was  waiting to cross a busy intersection of Don Andres Soriano Street and Plaridel Street  when the attack occurred.

Hugo’s van had tinted windows with plate number IMH 888.

Two men on a red-and-white motorcycle drove up to the driver’s side of the van. Three shots were fired at the window by the backrider, whose face was covered with cloth. The driver  wore a crash helmet that covered his features.

Witnesses told the police that a male passenger got down from the van and rushed to help Hugo, shouting, “Tabang, tabang!” (Help! Help!)

The assailants were overheard saying,  “Buhi pa, buhi pa (She’s still alive).”  The shooter reloaded his gun, but upon sensing the presence of a traffic enforcer nearby, the two killers sped off on their motorbike.

Alcala  drove the van, with the wounded businesswoman inside, to the government hospital about 50 meters away but it was too late to save her.

One of the passengers, Relavo, an electrician hired by the businesswoman, told police that he and Alcala were fetched from the LTO office by the victim. He said they were on their way to Argao town, where Hugo has a  piggery they would be attending to.

Police are still trying to establish the motive of the attack, said Chief Insp. Rex Lomente, chief of the Investigation and Detection Management Branch (IDMB) of the Mandaue police.

An uncle of the victim Teoddie Hugo, 60, of barangay Basak Pardo, Cebu City, told Cebu Daily News that his niece was a a good woman and successfully ran her furniture business in barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City.

Iris was the youngest of  three siblings.

He said his niece would go to their hometown in Argao town every afternoon.

Isagani, an elder brother of the victim, was at the hospital at 8 p.m. but declined to be interviewed. “Unya nalang kay sakit pa.” (Do it later, I’m still in pain.)

Police said the victim was a live-in partner of Alcala, who was arrested last July 5 in an entrapment operation after a barangay councilor complained he was given fake documents.

Alcala was an agent of the Security Pacific Assurance Corp. and had  helped facilitate the LTO registration of a trailer owner, a barangay councilor of Ibabao-Estancia, Pablo Gallego.

He was arrested as part of the government drive against illegal fixers and charged with estafa. /Jucell Marie P. Cuyos, Reporter