Suspect in Ilocos columnist murder survives attack

PASUQUIN, Ilocos Norte—The suspect in the Sept. 4, 2015, killing of Ilocos Norte newspaper columnist Stephen Pio Barreiro survived a gun attack on Friday evening.

Oliver Doctor was seated in front of the Galway bar in Barangay (village) Naglicuan when he was shot on the shoulder by an unidentified gunman, said Insp. Rodel Casalio, Pasiquin deputy chief of police.

Doctor, 51, was treated at the Gov. Roque B. Ablan Sr. Memorial hospital in Laoag City, which is 16 kilometers from Pasuquin.

Forensic investigators recovered bullet shells fired from a rifle.

Doctor was implicated last year in the murder of Barreiro by his two daughters who witnessed the 2015 attack.

Ma. Stephanie and Gabrielle Patricia testified that Doctor had been following them in a motorcycle when Barreiro and the girls drove Criselda Aguinaldo home to Pasiquin. Aguinaldo was Barreiro’s girlfriend, and was the former wife of Doctor.

Barreiro was attacked at a store where he and his daughters had stopped on their way to Laoag City.