Rise of shooting murders in Tagum noted

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte — Two more persons were killed and another was wounded in a series of gun attacks here on Wednesday, police said Thursday.

The latest victims added to the growing list of killings by shooting.

Last month, 16 people were killed by unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants here. In March, there were 15 killings,  police said.

But Senior Supt. Marcial Magistrado, the Davao del Norte police chief, said the police have been doing their job.  He said they were able to arrest two suspected assassins in previous attacks and  filed cases against three other suspects.

The latest shootings came as authorities were looking into the possible involvement of an organized group in the attacks, Magistrado said.

Based on the report from the Tagum police, the two slain victims in Wednesday’s attacks by armed men were Julito Faelnar, 47, single, a resident of Magugpo South village; and Shaun Palma, 37, a resident of Mankilam village.

The wounded victim was 38-year-old Deomelo Bucoy of Canocotan village.

Senior Insp. Anjanette Tirador, the Tagum City police spokesperson, said they were still validating reports of the victims’ supposed involvement in illegal drugs.

“We can only label the deaths as drugs-related if the victims died in the course of anti-drugs operations by our law enforcers. Even if a slain victim was included in the drugs list, still we could not consider his death (drugs-related),” Tirador told reporters here.

Magistrado said he has already directed the Tagum police to intensify their investigation of the killings to determine the motives and identities of the culprits.  SFM/rga