BY CRIS DIAZ
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: A family of five, including two children, were believed massacred while and three others were gunned down in two separate bloody incidents in the last 24-hour in Misamis Oriental, the police said Wednesday.
Unidentified suspects massacred a family of five, including two children, before burning the victims’ house in Indahag, an uptown village south of Cagayan de Oro City Wednesday morning.
Police Col. Ivan Viñas, spokesperson of the Cagayan de Oro City police, identified the family victims as Melgen Basilad Galpo, 31, his wife Aslyn, 30, children Yolem, 7 and Jolo, 4. Also killed was Maggie Cuanan Epanes, 25, sister of Aslyn.
Viñas said that an initial investigation showed that the charred bodies of the victims were recovered among the ruins of their house believed torched by the suspects.
“The suspects remain at large and motive for the killing remains unknown, “ Viñas said.
Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando Uy personally visited the dead victims in a funeral homes and told relatives that the city government will shoulder all burial and cremation expenses of the “massacred” family.
In Gingoog City, a component city of Misamis Oriental, 200 kilometers east of Cagayan de Oro City, three persons were gunned down Tuesday morning in what appeared to be a case of “road rage,” the police said Wednesday.
Killed were Amil Mama Paglas, 45, truck driver Muhamidin Alim Abdulrazak, 35, businessman, all of Datu Piang, Maguindanao and Omar Kabasalan Adzid, 48, also a truck driver, of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.
Pol. Lt. Theofraris Pia, spokesman of the Misamis Oriental provincial office, said that Lt. Col. Cecelio Orcullo, of the Gingoog City Police, reporred that the shooting occurred Tuesday morning along the highway of Anakan in Gingoog City.
He said that a witness, who was resting on a roadside shanty, told police investigators that two unidentified suspects on board a Sedan vehicle shot the driver and the occupants prompting the truck to sked and flipped on the side of the road.
According to the witness, the two suspects was overheard as saying “Yawa ka, ganina ra ka ba, hapit mi ninyo bangga-I” ( You devil, you have been almost hitting us along the way).
Orcullo said that the suspects immediately sped toward Cagayan de Oro City, “We checking the close circuit televisions (CCTVs) of business establishment in Gingoog City to possibly identify the suspects’ vehicle.
He said that the six-wheeler truck loaded with second hand motorcycles came from Manila and was on its way to Maguindanao when it figured a somewhat “road rage” incident along the Butuan-Gingoog highways Tueday morning.
The victim’s bodies now lie in San Guilermo Funeral Parlor along the National Highway of Brgy 20, in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental.
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