By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson revealed yesterday that the law enforcers in San Carlos City are suspecting that the ambush that took place in the city’s Barangay Palampas on Sunday morning was a case of “mistaken identity.”
Lacson said he has received information that the target of the suspects was not inside the car.
He said the authorities need to identify who was the real target of the ambush, what are the reasons for it, and to identify the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
“Very unfortunate for the personalities inside the car and I understand makadto man lang to sila sa bulangan,” Lacson said.
The governor said it seems to be a case of mistaken identity and he has called on Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOCPPO) acting director, Police Colonel Leo Pamittan, to leave no stone unturned.
He also said the suspects are not members of the New People’s Army (NPA), as the victims were ordinary San Carlos City residents.
Meanwhile, San Carlos City deputy police chief, Police Lt. Roby Aurita, revealed that the lone survivor in the ambush, 27-year-old Renante Chui, is now in stable condition.
Chui was reported to have also sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the attack.
Police have recovered a total of 58 empty shells from a .45 caliber firearm and 5.56 caliber shells from an assault rifle.
Aurita is also calling on any witnesses to the ambush to surface and cooperate with the police’s investigation.
Earlier on Sunday, an undetermined number of gunmen opened fire at a white Mazda sedan as they were traveling along Sitio Villa Elena in the city’s Barangay Talampas.
Forty-year-old Russel Bacao and 17-year-old Andre Fajardo were declared dead-on-the-spot, while 51-year-old Rudy Dela Fuente died from his gunshot wounds on the way to the hospital.
Police are still probing the ambush and currently eyeing illegal drugs as the motive for the attack.
The ambush was the second recorded this month following last week’s ambush on a police patrol car perpetrated by the NPA in the town of Binalbagan which resulted in the wounding of two police officers and a teenaged civilian./DGB, WDJ