Gunman kills Laoag City legal counsel inside office

BY JUN GUIANG
LAOAG CITY — A gunman killed Wednesday morning city legal officer Jose Antonio "Pepoc" Pastor, 50, in his law office, located one block from City Hall here, police reported. Investigators led by chief of police Supt. Wilson Lopez said Pastor, a former city councilor, was declared dead on arrival at the Gov. Roque B. Ablan Memorial Hospital in this city.

Dr. Roger Braceros said the victim died of wounds in the head and body inflicted by Cal. 45 bullets. Shortly before his death, the victim had breakfast in the McDonald restaurant here with former Gov. Rodolfo C. Fariñas and other friends.

Earlier, he attended Misa de Gallo at St. William Cathedral. Probers were looking into various angles in the slaying. The victim had been handling some sensational cases. Gertrudes Reantillo said Pastor, her son-in-law, was in jolly mood before his death because his wife was in Manila where she had just gotten her appointment from Malacañang as new provincial agrarian reform officer.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Ilocos Norte-Laoag City chapter, through lawyer Marlon Manuel, condemned the killing of Pastor, saying it was senseless and barbaric. Supt. Wilson Joseph Lopez, city police chief, said the victim suffered two gunshot wounds in the head and another in the back.

Lopez said Pastor had just arrived in his office from City Hall when the suspected hired killer barged into his office at around 11:15 a.m. and shot him several times with a Cal.45 pistol. He said Pastor’s staffs did not notice the gunman as they were in the computer room. Lopez said they were still looking into the motive behind Pastor’s killing and checking the cases he was handling. At the regional police headquarters in Camp Florendo in San Fernado City, La Union, Ilocos regional police Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil ordered Lopez to thoroughly investigate the killing.

“We will leave no stone unturned until we arrest the suspect. We will do the best we can to solve this crime and give justice to the family of the victim. I ordered Col. Lopez to conduct a speedy investigation into the incident,” Bataoil said. Meanwhile, two merchants were killed in separate shooting incidents in Pinili, Ilocos Norte, and adjacent Badoc town, lawmen reported.

Insp. Mario Badiola, Pinili police chief, said that trader Florendo Marcelino, 50, of Barangay Saud, Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, was shot to death in Barangay Darat, Pinili. Marcelino, a bagoong (fish sauce) dealer, was talking to a store owner when two armed men aboard a Honda Wave motorcycle approached him and repeatedly shot him at close range. Probers found at the crime scene six empty shells of Cal.45 bullets. In Badoc, fish trader Edna Tinong died on the spot while her nephew Alfie Tinong was wounded when armed men sprayed bullets at the tricycle in which they were riding in Barangay Sta. Cruz. – With a report from Mydz Supnad