MABALACAT CITY –The relatives of a young woman who was slain by still unidentified assailants at around 7:10 pm Sunday night in Barangay Mabiga here insists that it was a case of mistaken identity. The victim whom police identified as Marian Lucas y Gantan, 29, single and a resident of Barangay Cacutud here, sustained gunshot wounds in the different parts of her body which allegedly caused her instantaneous death.
The police spot report on the incident signed by chief of police, Supt. Henry Flores, said the victim was driving a Hyundai Tucson with plate number TOH 442 along the MacArthur Highway in a north bound direction near Fernando Coliseum when her attackers opened fire hitting her on the “right side of her body, right leg, left shoul-der, left upper back and left under arm.” Flores said the attackers were reportedly on board two motorcycles – one riding solo and two others riding-in-tandem.
Hysterical
The victim’s mother, identified as Pyra Lucas, 47, was seen on the crime scene moments later hysterical and shouting that Mayor Marino “Boking” Morales was responsible for her daughter’s death. A man also in the crime scene, identified later by police as a certain John Ramos, claimed that he was the victim’s husband.
Ramos said it was the victim’s mother who has been receiving death threats. Initial police investigation also showed that the victim hit a tricycle – TMX 155 with plate number IT 4108 driven by Bladimir Sanchez, 42, with his wife identified as Irene Sanchez, 37, in the backseat both residents of the Mawaque Resettlement Center – after losing control of her vehicle before ramming an XLT passenger jeepney with plate number DDB 981 driven by Rodrigo Bernardo, 59, of San Nicolas, Bamban, Tarlac. The Sanchez couple reportedly sustained injuries and were brought to the hospital while the driver of the XLT was unhurt.
Crusade against corruption
Lucas said it was she who was the real target because of her crusade against corruption in the city which started two years ago after obtaining a 10-year Commission on Audit (COA) report on Mabalacat. Lucas claimed that after reviewing the COA report with an accountant from a Makati accounting firm and a banker, they discovered huge anomalies and highlighted the questionable transactions and violations.
It was then, she said, that she was approached by a certain Yolanda Carreon who deposited P1.5 million in her BDO account allegedly given by Morales who wanted to be friends with her. But she said she had her lawyer, Atty. Jackson Yabut, call up Morales but denied giving her the money.
She reasoned that it was her SUV that her daughter was driving on that fateful night and that she was mistaken for her since the vehicle had dark tint. Lucas said her daughter was driving home from the Kaye Espinosa beauty parlor in Dau when she was attacked.
“I called her at around 6:49 pm on her Viber account and she said she was about done. But when I checked on her again at 7:18 pm, she was no longer responding,” she tearfully recalled.
Lucas said the father of her daughter will come home from Dubai Tuesday afternoon for her funeral arrangements. Her remains lie in state at the St. Louie Funeral Parlor at the Tierra Santa Memorial Park in Mabiga.
‘God is my witness’
Meanwhile, Mayor Morales denied any hand in the allegations of Lucas against him. “God is my witness. I have been in local politics for 24 years since I was an OIC-councilor, then vice mayor and mayor but I did not resort to any violence,” he said. Morales also denied knowing Lucas who is a member of the Facebook group “Mabalacat Stop
Corruption” but herself allegedly the subject of estafa cases and a human trafficking case.
P100,000 reward
Morales said he urged the Sangguniang Panlungsod to come up with a resolution giving monetary reward of P100,000 to anyone who can give any information leading to the arrest of the suspects.
