3 men killed in separate vigilante-style slays in Davao Sur

DIGOS CITY—Three men were killed by motorcycle-riding suspects in separate attacks in Davao del Sur this week, similar to ones attributed to vigilantes in the past.

Based on reports reaching the Davao del Sur police headquarters here, the latest incident took place in Magsaysay town on Wednesday afternoon.

Santiago Barbona Jr., a 62-year-old widower, was on his way home after attending a fiesta when he was shot dead by one of two men riding a motorcycle.

Magsaysay police investigators said the assailants tailed the victim from Barangay (village) San Isidro proper and shot him upon reaching Purok (zone) Magsasaka in the said village around 2 p.m.

Chief Inspector Robert Caraoa, Magsaysay police chief, said the gunmen used .45 cal. pistol in killing the victim.

On Monday evening, 24-year-old Jobert Palma was shot to death in Digos City by motorcycle-riding men.

On Tuesday night, Faisal Lutian, 33, a toy vendor, was also shot dead by motorcycle-riding men in Malita town.

Senior Superintendent Ronald dela Rosa, Davao del Sur police chief, said investigators were looking at two angles – the victims’ possible involvement in the illegal drugs trade and the participation of guns-for-hire.

He said in the drugs angle, it could be possible that the victims were involved in a case of double cross while in the guns-for-hire angle, it was possible that the victims were tied in grudges.

Dela Rosa downplayed suggestions that the killings were perpetrated by the so-called Davao Death Squad, which was being blamed for over 900 deaths in nearby Davao City from 2001.

The Commission on Human Rights investigated the killings in 2009 and had initially concluded that officials were in a way involved in the activities of the DDS.

The CHR’s final report and its course of action were never made public.

But dela Rosa said the police did not believe that the DDS even existed.

The attacks this week were the latest in the string of still unresolved killings, now numbering nearly a dozen, in the province since the start of the year.