Grandson of slain couple in Cotabato a drug suspect – police

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Cotabato, Philippines — Police said the grandson of an elderly couple killed in a shooting incident in Matalam town on Saturday appeared to be the real target of the assailants, who had tailed him on his way to Matalam from this city.

This was according to Maj. Joseph Brian Placer, chief of the Matalam Municipal Police Station.

Killed in the attack, which took place at around 7 p.m. on Saturday in Purok Sampaguita, Barangay Poblacion of Matalam, were Jose and Ernesta Getalla, both 70, and their 43-year-old daughter Lorena.

Lorena’s son, Daryl Getalla — who was wounded, along with his aunt Emmelita Getalla — could have been the real target of the shooting.

READ: Elderly couple, daughter slain in Cotabato gun attack

Placer said unidentified gunmen were on motorcycles riding in tandem. They had followed Daryl from this city to Matalam town, where the suspects strafed their hut, killing his grandparents and mother and wounding him and two others.

“The suspects [were aboard] two motorcycles and chased Daryll from Kidapawan to Matalam town,” Placer said.

According to police, Daryl had switched huts with his mother and grandparents, moving them to the hut he used to occupy with his live-in partner.

“Perhaps the suspects had already conducted a casing operation on Daryl’s whereabouts and having wrongly assumed he was still staying at the nipa hut [he previously occupied] and pumped bullets into it,” Placer said.

He said Daryl had been allegedly been involved in the illegal drug trade and had been in their list of individuals in Matalam peddling and using illegal drugs.

Placer added that Daryl had been known as a “thief not only in Matalam but also in nearby towns as well.”

The three slain victims had multiple gunshots in various parts of their bodies.

Daryl and the other two wounded were treated at the Midway Hospital in Matalam.

/atm