P’sinan town exec hurt in ambush; three others killed in road shooting

By Freddie G. Lazaro

SAN QUINTIN, Pangasinan  – This town’s budget officer was wounded in an ambush on Wednesday afternoon while on her way home on board a tricycle, even as three others were killed in Sto. Tomas town on the same day in another road shooting. 

Police said San Quintin municipal budget officer Estrellita Ysip Rodanilla, 60, sustained three gunshot wounds from a .45-caliber pistol.

Rodanilla was with her two grandchildren aboard the tricycle driven by her brother when two motorcycle-riding men fired shots. Only she was hit.

Police were clueless on the motive behind the slay attempt.

In another incident, three people traveling on two motorcycles were killed as gunmen aboard a closed van opened fire at them along a road in Sto, Tomas town Wednesday, a police report said.

Chief Insp. Arnold Soriano, Santo Tomas chief of police, identified the fatalities as Nelson Saginon, Lucas Marzan, and Darwin Saginon, all local residents, who were traveling home from Rosales town, same province.

Soriano said probers lifted bullet casings of three kinds of firearms from the crime scene – a .45-caliber, a 9mm, and an M-16.

He said these are now being checked for marks that may lead to the identification of the owners of the firearms used in the shooting.

Initial reports were also unclear whether or not all three victims were shot and killed in the same area in Barangay San Agustin in Santo Tomas as Saginon was reportedly killed on the road in Poblacion, same town.

He said the backgrounds of the victims are also being established as probers try to figure out a possible motive in the attack.