Mocking pols’ battlecry vs crime, gunmen kill 3

As the election season kicked off with renewed campaign promises to stamp out crime, motorcycle-riding gunmen apparently paid no mind.

Two Indian siblings and a businesswoman were shot dead in separate attacks in Antipolo City and Parañaque City, their killers casually riding out of view after finishing their job in broad daylight.

Tersem Lal and his sister Santos Kaur sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the attack carried out by two men on a motorbike on ML Quezon Avenue, Barangay Dalig, Antipolo, around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Insp. Cherrylyn Agtarap, public information office chief of Rizal provincial police, said the siblings were also on a motorbike and had just left their house at Pines City Executive Village in Dalig when ambushed. The 51-year-old Kaur died on the spot while the 47-year-old Lal was brought by bystanders to Antipolo Doctors Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

The police official said the siblings were money lenders who were on their way to collect from borrowers that morning. Investigators have yet to establish the motive for the killing, but Agtarap said it may be related to the victims’ business.

In Parañaque, 66-year-old Yolanda Dela Rosa Manatad was stuck in heavy traffic in her black Isuzu Sportivo around 4 p.m. Tuesday when a pistol-wielding man approached the vehicle, opened the door on the driver’s side, and shot her several times, the police said.

The assailant fled on a motorcycle he had parked nearby, said Senior Supt. Ariel Andrade, the city’s chief of police. Quoting eyewitnesses, the official said the killer was earlier seen tailing Manatad’s vehicle on the congested San Antonio Avenue, Barangay San Antonio. Four 9-mm bullet casings were later found at the scene.

Attacked after court hearing

Manatad, who was driving the vehicle unaccompanied, was then on her way home after attending a court hearing where she was a respondent in a trespassing case, Andrade said.

That day, he said, the judge handling the case issued an order saying it had been settled. The police also learned that Manatad was a complainant in estafa cases pending in other courts.

The victim was into the money-lending business, Andrade said. “We are looking at all the details of the court cases where the victim was involved.’’

Investigators ruled out robbery as Manatad’s valuables were not taken from the vehicle.