PAGADIAN CITY – Unidentified suspects shot dead on Thursday evening a 27-year-old tricycle driver right before the eyes of his two-year-old son, as they were eating dinner in San Francisco district in this city.
City police Chief Supt. Benito Recopuerto said the victim, Morsid Macario Maliso, a resident of Barangay Bulanit in Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur, had parked his tricycle by the roadside and was eating with his son when two gunmen arrived around 7:50 p.m. and fatally shot him several times.
Recopuerto said the tricycle driver’s son was unharmed. He also said that Maliso died at Pagadian City Medical Center.
The gunmen casually fled after shooting the victim, Recopuerto added.
Police said that Maliso was the latest victim of gun-wielding suspects here.
On Tuesday, barely a day after he celebrated his 70th birthday, a man was also shot dead in this city by unidentified suspects.
Marcial Ortega slumped dead some 100 meters away from his family’s store at the wharf area in Barangay Sta. Lucia.
Two days before that, unidentified motorcycle-riding men shot dead a 13-year-old boy, who came from an Internet café and was on his way home to Barangay Sta. Lucia.
Witnesses said the victim, Saidamen Diamla, a resident of Purok Makabibihag Uno, even pleaded for his life by kneeling before the suspects but they shot him anyway.
On January 18, 29-year old fish port laborer Jovanie Mamawe Ajo was also shot dead while heading home from a house blessing.
Like Diamla, Ajo also tried to escape death but was chased by two men on a motorbike before killing him with two shots.
No arrests have been made over these incidents so far.
In Sominot town in Zamboanga del Sur, three persons were injured in a gun attack, also on Thursday evening.
Sominot police Chief Sr. Insp. Juvic Aballe said that the suspects fired on Romel Sumaklaw but also hit his with one-year-old son, and a neighbor’s eight-year-old daughter.
The victims were subsequently rushed to a town hospital.
The motive and identities of the suspects in the Sominot gun attack also remained undetermined. /kga