2 Customs personnel injured in ambush in Magallanes Village

MANILA, Philippines — Two personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) were wounded after armed men attacked them inside the upscale Magallanes Village on Friday night.

Sisters Maricon Manalo and Marietta Lasac, along with Sherlyn Salazar, another BOC employee, were on board a van along Lapu-Lapu Avenue in Barangay Magallanes when their path was blocked by another vehicle at the corner of Victoria Street around 8:40 p.m.

According to Maj. Gideon Ines, chief of the Makati police, four unidentified men alighted from a black Toyota Wigo and surrounded the victims’ grey Toyota Corolla Altis.

The suspects told them to get out of the vehicle and forced them to open their windows.

When the victims refused, one of the men smashed the window of the driver’s seat where Manalo was seated.

Manalo then drove in reverse to escape until they reached a barangay outpost, while the suspects fired at them. The suspects then fled toward Osmeña Highway.

Manalo, 55,  the officer in charge of BOC’s formal entry division, was wounded in the middle finger.

Her sister Lasac, 60, was hit in the back. Lasac was a principal appraiser in Manalo’s division in BOC. —Dexter Cabalza