Olongapo exec gunned down

OLONGAPO CITY–An official of the city’s Register of Deeds was shot and killed by a lone gunman in Barangay East Bajac Bajac here on Wednesday, police said.

Senior Supt. Rodolfo Recomono Jr., city police director, said Benjamin Escolango III, deputy chief of the Register of Deeds office here, was attacked at noon as he was about to board his Mitsubishi Strada on Rizal Avenue. The gunman fled on a motorcycle.

Recomono said Escolango, who was shot in the head, died before reaching the James Gordon Memorial Hospital here.

Escolango’s killing was the latest gun attack in this city after the murder of Paul Salvatus, 50, a son of a local businessman, and the shooting and wounding of two brothers on Fendler Extension in the city’s business district last month.

In May, lawyer Ian Vela Cruz was shot and killed by a lone gunman in front of his house here. Vela Cruz represented a complainant in the kidnapping and extortion cases filed against local policemen by relatives of teen actor Jhake Vargas.

In April, Australian Paul Dean Davy, 52, was gunned down at a local beach resort that he managed.