Ignacio Gallero was killed in front of his live-in partner at their Pasig City home on Wednesday. —Jodee Agoncillo
Behind his mask, with his finger on the trigger, the intruder made eye contact with Jeryln Bernal — and in the next second left her without a life partner.
This was how Bernal recalled the very moment her live-in partner Ignacio Gallero, a village watchman earlier suspended from his job after testing positive for drug use, was killed right in front of her at their house in Barangay Bagong Ilog, Pasig City, on Wednesday afternoon.
Witnesses interviewed by Inquirer said six men on motorcycles stopped outside Gallero’s residence on Flores Street, Intalan Compound, around 2:30 p.m. Four of them walked toward the house and two served as lookouts.
As his cohorts moved in, one of the lookouts pointed his gun at people who were at a nearby store. Gallero at the time had just woken up to get ready for his nightshift and was texting near the doorway when the gunmen found him.
Bernal said she saw how one of the masked men pointed a pistol at Gallero. “Maawa na kayo! (Have mercy!),” she recalled telling the killer, who she said made eye contact with her before pulling the trigger. “They really wanted to kill him.”
“He was a good man who wanted to change his ways. He had dreams for our child and had plans for the christening,” Bernal said, referring to the upcoming baptism of their five-month-old daughter, who lay beside her as she wept. Gallero had two more children with another woman.
According to Barangay Bagong Ilog chair Jose Nilo Abrenio, Gallero had been serving as barangay employee for about two years and was suspended after testing positive for drug use in July last year.
He was reinstated after “he promised to change” but was still included in the barangay watch list as a user, Abrenio added.
“I saw his will and sincerity to change. He attended our activities (for drug users) in the gym last Tuesday and participated in our programs. And he was reinstated.”
“We do not know who is doing this, but this is not good, especially if people (being killed) had already changed or had the real desire to change,” Abrenio said.
“My father was defenseless. And he was really changing,” said JM, the victim’s only son.
The orphaned JM said he once agreed with President Duterte’s antidrug campaign. “But the problem is the people behind Duterte. The only people affected by this program are the poor.”
The village secretary, Lilian Bantog, said the barangay government would shoulder Gallero’s funeral to spare his family from further expenses.