B’gay official, family killed for being 'in wrong place, time'

CURRIMAO. Ilocos Norte - A barangay chairman was in the wrong place and in the wrong time, when he was shot while his kin were hurt in a shooting that supposedly targeted an alleged illegal drugs tipster here Wednesday afternoon.

Ilocos Norte police director Senior Supt. Marlou Chan said chairman Melchor Pacnis of Barangay Victoria, Currimao together with his family were enroute to nearby Paoay town aboard a tricycle along the national highway when a gunman paid to “eliminate” drug operation tipster Edgar Quinto, who was enroute to Currimao, began firing a pistol and whose bullets also hit the village chairman.

The tricycle where the village chief and his family rode was turned upside down, injuring members of his family, while the real target — Quinto,39, and his son Jared — were able to flee.

Quinto also suffered a gunshot wound and took refuge at the Currimao town police headquarters.

The victims were all rushed to a hospital in Batac City while policemen launched pursuit operations.

Police said the latest shooting incident could not be political as the real target was not the village chairman.

Amid the continuing spate of shootings and killings in Ilocos Norte, Sr. Supt. Chan said the work of the Task Force running after guns-for-hire is succeeding with the arrest of the province’s number 14 “target”—Robert Baoit.

Last week, Baoit who was tagged in numerous “hits” was cornered in his lair, bringing to at least a dozen the paid hitmen in the province nabbed by cops.