GAPAN CITY – A barangay chairman is facing four counts of murder and four counts of frustrated murder over the death of a policeman and three civilians, including an 86-year-old woman, in Barangay San Lorenzo here Tuesday.
Barangay Chairman Montano Barlis, 60, of Sta. Cruz this city, was reportedly seen by Emerson Pascual, 40, businessman and supposed target, with the gunmen shortly before the attack at around 10:30 a.m. along Gen. Tinio St., Barangay San Lorenzo.
Senior Supt. Crizaldo Nieves, Nueva Ecija police director, identified the fatalities as PO2 Jefferson Lim, King Jasper Juvenal, Rufino Vendivil and Consuelo Marse, 86, all of this city.
Nieves said the victims died from multiple gunshot wounds from unspecified automatic firearms.
Another bystander, Rodney Garcia, 16, student, is being treated in a hospital.
Police said Pascual’s group was about to enter a restaurant when the shooting started.
The suspects fled on board a pick-up truck they commandeered from passers-by which was later recovered in nearby Barangay Malapit, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija.
Nieves said they have yet to establish the motive for the attack.
Pascual told probers he had just attended the interment rites for a childhood friend and even greeted Barlis.
“A minute after, it happened,” he said.
Pascual’s father Rodrigo is the political enemy of former Mayor Ernesto Natividad. He challenged the latter in the 2007 mayoralty race but lost.
His brothers, Ericson and Ebertson, along with three others were killed when a group of armed men raided the family-owned cockpit arena in 2006.
Former Mayor Natividad whose daughter Maricel won the recent mayoralty election, is currently in detention over multiple murder charges over the 2006 incident.
Barlis denied knowledge of the attack. He said he was at the city hall when he learned about the incident.
