Pangasinan school shooting fatalities now 4

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Police Officer 3 Domino Alipio, who is engaged in a money lending business, went to Pangasinan National High School (PNHS) in this capital town at 4 p.m. on Monday to collect loan payments from teachers.

But when his collector and agent returned empty-handed, Alipio fumed. Lugging a pistol and a rifle, he entered the PNHS campus and fired at will.

Minutes later, three people lay dead—Florenda Flores, a teacher of Labrador National High School and Alipio’s agent; Jonalito Urayan, Alipio’s collector; and Acedillo Sison, a teacher of the PNHS.

Another PNHS teacher, Linda Sison, died while being taken to a local hospital.

Three PNHS teachers—Ferdinand Entimano, Jovito Jimenez and Juliet Molano—were shot and wounded and taken to different hospitals in the province.

Florante Tamondong, PNHS principal, said the shooting happened as teachers and students were ending classes on Monday afternoon. He said no student was hurt as they were able to run to the nearby Narciso Ramos Sports Complex when shots rang out.

Alipio, who is assigned in Anda town, and his driver, Oliver Ganigan, were arrested by the police and were detained at the Lingayen police station.

Recovered from Alipio were a .45 cal. pistol, a Carbine rifle and a hand grenade.

Gov. Amado Espino Jr. on Tuesday suspended classes at the PNHS for two days to help the school community deal with the trauma arising from the shooting incident.

“We asked the teachers to report on Thursday to show the children that the situation is normal. But I doubt if the children would go to school,” Tamondong said.

Alma Ruby Torio, DepEd Pangasinan Division I superintendent, met with Senior Supt. Reynaldo Biay, acting Pangasinan police director, on Tuesday and asked him to send more policemen to the PNHS to prevent a similar incident.

“Please give us an assurance that it won’t happen again,” Torio told Biay in a meeting on Tuesday.

Biay said he would assign six policemen to guard the campus, with two policemen in each shift.

Tamondong, who would also be given a police escort, said Alipio had told him he would return to get back at the teachers “when I get out of prison.”

Torio said she asked the provincial health office to conduct a series of stress debriefing sessions for students, teachers and their family members who were traumatized by the shooting spree.

Supt. Renante Panay, Lingayen town police chief, said Alipio once went to his office to complain about his difficulty in collecting loan payments from his clients, but could not say if the complaint involved the PNHS teachers.

Tamondong said at least 39 teachers took out loans from Alipio and they had reported to him about the threats they allegedly received from the policeman.

One of the fatalities, Linda Sison, had the biggest loan of about P200,000, Tamondong said.

Witnesses said after Alipio shot his two companions, he went to a classroom where a teachers’ meeting was being held. There he fired indiscriminately at the teachers.

One of the teachers said Alipio sat in the classroom and said, “Should I still shoot the others?”

Senior Insp. Diomedes Bonalos, Anda police chief, described Alipio as a quiet and obedient person. “He was assigned in the town’s police station only  in May and he regularly reported to the office,” he said.

Biay said he would recommend Alipio’s dismissal from the service, the maximum penalty in the administrative aspect of his case.

“The Pangasinan provincial police office disowns Alipio’s evil acts. [He does not] deserve to wear the police badge, which symbolizes ‘service, honor and justice.’ The moment he thought of and executed such inhumane acts, he has already stripped himself of the very virtues that make a man a police officer, servant and protector of people,” the Pangasinan police said in a statement.  With a report from Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon