GAPAN CITY – “This battle was not the way we expected her to die.”
Thus lamented the family of Consuelo Magno-Mance, the 86-year-old woman who was caught in the crossfire when five heavily armed men ambushed the group of businessman Emerson Pascual in Barangay San Lorenzo here Tuesday.
The family called on families, which they did not name, “especially those enjoying the perks of power and authority, influence, guns, goons and gold, to settle your differences among yourselves.”
“If you cannot get rid of the culture of war freak ‘ubusan ng lahi’ syndrome, do not involve innocent civilians who have nothing to do with your conflicts,” said a statement read by lawyer Homer Elford Garong for the family.
Garong said that Mance, his aunt, survived “all the battles in her life,” including breast cancer, emphysema, heart ailment and the removal of her ovary.
“She tried to survive for the love of her grandchildren. Worse she was hit by the stray bullet while she was enjoying the sunlight and breathing fresh air which was her daily routine,” he said.
The victim, one of the four fatalities in the attack, was sitting in front of her house, next to a canteen where Pascual’s group was about to eat “lugaw” at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. The suspects were armed with M-14 and AK-47 assault rifles, witnesses said.
Supt. Bernie Orig, city police chief, said some 243 cartridge were recovered from the road where the gunmen positioned.
Dante Jimenez, president of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) who led his group in visiting the crime scene and the wake of the victims on Thursday, described the attack as “Mindanao-like lawlessness.”
Garong, on behalf of the family, also called on the incumbent city administration to keep its hands off on the investigation.
“We call upon the authorities to be truthful and honest in building up the case to be filed against the perpetrators of this crime,” he said.
Orig said they are coming up with the cartographic sketch of the suspects soon.
Former policeman and incumbent Barangay Chairman Montano Barlis, a political ally of detained former Mayor Ernesto Natividad, was arrested by the police in a supposed hot pursuit operation Tuesday and charged with four counts of murder and four counts of frustrated murder.
Chona Vendivil, 44, wife of Rufino Vendivil, driver of Pascual who was also killed in the attack, called on the police to expedite the delivery of justice for her husband. “He worked to make us live,” she cried.
But while Marce’s and Vendivil’s families have aired resolve to fight for justice, the family of King Jasper Juvinal, the first year Maritime student, sounded helpless.
Juvinal who urged his father Michael to come home from Dubai, was at the same canteen with another student, and hit by several bullets in his body.
“Ipinagpapasa-Diyos ko na lang,” said Michael, adding he has to continue working amid heavy heart as an overseas Filipino worker for the survival of his four other children. “Yung umalis ka lang para mag-trabaho sa malayo ay mabigat na sa paa, itong ganito pa,” he said.
He said his son, the second of five, has been “very good.” “Hindi kami kinabahan kahit sa Cabanatuan siya pumapasok dahil mabait talaga ‘yan,” he said, saying Juvinal served as altar boy outside his studies.
Jimenez said such apparent hopelessness indicates the poor justice system in the country.
Jimenez said it was the first time that the family in “a high-profile violence” was attacked twice.
“Emeng (Pascual) had lost his two brothers to killers seven years ago. And now they tried to kill the only remaining brother, too,” Jimenez said.
Mayor Maricel Natividad, daughter of the former mayor, said her family has always advocated peace.
She expressed grief over the incident and asked the police to run after the killers as well as carry the investigation fairly.
