TUESDAY AFTERNOON, British national Bruce Anthony Jones, 50, was killed while his Filipina wife Maricel Aramay was seriously wounded in an ambush by motorcycle-riding men in Don Bonifacio Subd., Barangay Pulung Maragul.
Jones was identified as the captain of that ship impounded in Mariveles, Bataan which was found to be carrying high-powered firearms including Galil assault rifles.
The police said Jones, listed as a resident of Purok 4, Tagumpay Street, Barangay New Cabalan, Olongapo City, had been receiving death threats, apparently over the ship incident, okay, the arms smuggle.
Only last month, our own police sources said, Jones was nabbed at the Palm Tree Beach Resort in Olongapo City for alleged possession of 15 grams of shabu and assorted firearms.
So what was he doing in Angeles City? To meet up with his killer?
Early Sunday, September 19, American James Kermit Basham, 63, was gunned down as he was about to board his motorcycle at the Pampang Public Market.
Basham was rushed to the nearby Ospital ning Angeles but was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.
His assailant boarded a waiting red motorcycle driven by another man and made a swift getaway, police said.
But for the modus operandi – the use of guns and motorcycles – the police are yet to find any connection in the Jones and Basham killings.
It is good that the usual quick, knee-jerk dismissal of “isolated case” has not been invoked here. Not yet, at least.
The killings though have resurrected the terror that gripped the foreign community in the city only two months back.
On July 12, the bodies of Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, a South African national, and his live-in partner, Abegail Helina, were already in advanced state of decomposition when discovered in their house at Oasis Hotel and Villas in Clarkville Compound, Barangay Anunas. They were robbed of a laptop, a camera, and a cellular phone.
On July 16, James Bolton Porter, 51, a British national, and his live-in partner, Melissa Madarang, 22, were also found dead from gunshot wounds at their residence in Sta. Maria Subdivision, Barangay Balibago. They were also robbed.
On July 22, retired US Air Force Master Sergeant Albert Mitchell, 70, his wife Janet Andrenada, 53, and their house helpers Isabel Fajardo, Marissa Prado, and Boy Vergara were found dead at Hensonville Court Subdivision, Barangay Malabanias. Robbery was again raised here.
The quick arrest of the lone suspect in the July murders, Mark Dizon, was hailed as a new day for the city’s foreign community, the pall of gloom that descended upon it lifted, and Fields Avenue again reveling in gay abandon.
The city police thereby somewhat regaining some luster in their badges dimmed by the dozens of unsolved murders – from Sisig Queen Aling Lucing to Apl.de.app’s brother, from businessmen to village chiefs, and an assortment of foreign nationals too: Malaysian, Korean, American – during the previous Nepomuceno administration.
They stopped killing foreigners in Angeles, didn’t they?
“Serial killer” Dizon is in jail. The regional trial court (RTC) has ordered a speedy but fair trial, citing the “seriousness and international impact” of the case.
Now, with the Basham and Jones killings, the foreign community is again terrorized, even as it is deep in prayer that the police be themselves imbued with “the seriousness and international impact” to work with dispatch for their solution. As they did with Dizon.
They still kill foreigners in Angeles City, don’t they? Why?
Foreigners have the money. So they make natural targets for thieves. Simplified rationalization worthy of a rookie cop there. Robbery need not be always complexed with murder, multiple murders at that.
So what gives in this spate of killings of foreign nationals in the city?
The embarrassment, nay, the international shame, of the city and the damnation of its government.
Don’t look now, but there may be more, much more motives to these killings than robbery, vendetta or what-not. We feel some eerie sense of political undertones here.
Be ever on the look out, Mayor Ed Pamintuan.
Jones was identified as the captain of that ship impounded in Mariveles, Bataan which was found to be carrying high-powered firearms including Galil assault rifles.
The police said Jones, listed as a resident of Purok 4, Tagumpay Street, Barangay New Cabalan, Olongapo City, had been receiving death threats, apparently over the ship incident, okay, the arms smuggle.
Only last month, our own police sources said, Jones was nabbed at the Palm Tree Beach Resort in Olongapo City for alleged possession of 15 grams of shabu and assorted firearms.
So what was he doing in Angeles City? To meet up with his killer?
Early Sunday, September 19, American James Kermit Basham, 63, was gunned down as he was about to board his motorcycle at the Pampang Public Market.
Basham was rushed to the nearby Ospital ning Angeles but was declared dead on arrival by attending physicians.
His assailant boarded a waiting red motorcycle driven by another man and made a swift getaway, police said.
But for the modus operandi – the use of guns and motorcycles – the police are yet to find any connection in the Jones and Basham killings.
It is good that the usual quick, knee-jerk dismissal of “isolated case” has not been invoked here. Not yet, at least.
The killings though have resurrected the terror that gripped the foreign community in the city only two months back.
On July 12, the bodies of Geoffrey Allan Bennun, 60, a South African national, and his live-in partner, Abegail Helina, were already in advanced state of decomposition when discovered in their house at Oasis Hotel and Villas in Clarkville Compound, Barangay Anunas. They were robbed of a laptop, a camera, and a cellular phone.
On July 16, James Bolton Porter, 51, a British national, and his live-in partner, Melissa Madarang, 22, were also found dead from gunshot wounds at their residence in Sta. Maria Subdivision, Barangay Balibago. They were also robbed.
On July 22, retired US Air Force Master Sergeant Albert Mitchell, 70, his wife Janet Andrenada, 53, and their house helpers Isabel Fajardo, Marissa Prado, and Boy Vergara were found dead at Hensonville Court Subdivision, Barangay Malabanias. Robbery was again raised here.
The quick arrest of the lone suspect in the July murders, Mark Dizon, was hailed as a new day for the city’s foreign community, the pall of gloom that descended upon it lifted, and Fields Avenue again reveling in gay abandon.
The city police thereby somewhat regaining some luster in their badges dimmed by the dozens of unsolved murders – from Sisig Queen Aling Lucing to Apl.de.app’s brother, from businessmen to village chiefs, and an assortment of foreign nationals too: Malaysian, Korean, American – during the previous Nepomuceno administration.
They stopped killing foreigners in Angeles, didn’t they?
“Serial killer” Dizon is in jail. The regional trial court (RTC) has ordered a speedy but fair trial, citing the “seriousness and international impact” of the case.
Now, with the Basham and Jones killings, the foreign community is again terrorized, even as it is deep in prayer that the police be themselves imbued with “the seriousness and international impact” to work with dispatch for their solution. As they did with Dizon.
They still kill foreigners in Angeles City, don’t they? Why?
Foreigners have the money. So they make natural targets for thieves. Simplified rationalization worthy of a rookie cop there. Robbery need not be always complexed with murder, multiple murders at that.
So what gives in this spate of killings of foreign nationals in the city?
The embarrassment, nay, the international shame, of the city and the damnation of its government.
Don’t look now, but there may be more, much more motives to these killings than robbery, vendetta or what-not. We feel some eerie sense of political undertones here.
Be ever on the look out, Mayor Ed Pamintuan.
