Sunstar Cebu Oct. 10, 2008 issue
Friday, October 10, 2008
Taus ambush, shoot Akrhos
FIVE people were wounded in an ambush allegedly staged by fraternity members on Maximo Patalinjug Ave. in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu city at past 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Police said the ambush was staged by two suspected members of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity.
Two of the five injured in the shooting are reportedly members of the Alpha Kappa Rho (Akrho). The incident has raised concerns that after months of peace in Cebu City, the rival groups will rekindle hostilities in Lapu-Lapu City.
Hours after the shooting, police arrested 23-year-old Norman Espina, one of the suspects and an alleged Tau Gamma hit man.
Wednesday’s shooting happened less than 50 meters from the Basak barangay hall, said homicide investigator SPO2 Rolito Jumao-as.
The victims took a tricycle for Barangay Gun-ob after celebrating the birthday of a friend in Barangay Pajo.
Since there were eight of them and not all could be accommodated in the tricycle, one of them, a 15-year-old boy, had to sit at the tricycle’s bumper.
As they were nearing the corner of the road leading to the Basak barangay hall, two men standing on the roadside shot at them.
Jumao-as identified the injured Akrho members as Clark Lequin, 17, who was wounded below his right armpit, and Neil Estomago, 20, who was wounded in the back.
The non-frat members who were injured were identified as Jobert Espinosa, 19, Jovanni Desierto, 16, and tricycle driver Mervin Maranga, 35.
Espinosa, who is a son of a policeman, was hit in left elbow. Desierto was hit in his thigh while Maranga was shot in the right arm.
Despite his wound, Maranga still managed to drive his tricycle to the Lapu-Lapu City District Hospital where they first got treatment before they were transferred to Cebu City.
Jumao-as said that during the shooting, the other four passengers of the tricycle managed to jump out and run to the barangay hall for help. The shooters, however, quickly fled the place on board a motorcycle.
“They might have been spotted drinking and ambushed on their way home,” he said.
Acting Lapu-Lapu City Police Director Mariano Natuel has ordered his men to conduct regular patrols in barangays where there are known Akrho and Tau Gamma Phi members.
“In our monitoring, almost all barangays in Lapu-Lapu have frat members,” Jumao-as said.
Last Saturday, Maria Gina Pascua, 26, and Nelson Milyama, Jr. 21, live-in partners who are both frat members, were wounded after being shot by a jealous colleague.
Pascua was wounded in the leg while Milyama was hit at the back. Both are still undergoing treatment in a local hospital.
Past midnight yesterday, officials of Barangay Lorega in Cebu City arrested a 14-year-old girl after she was allegedly found with a caliber .38 revolver with bullets and an empty shell in the cylinder.
Eva (real name withheld for being a minor) was turned over to the Family Juvenile Gender Sensitivity Section (FJGSS) desk of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
Lorega Barangay Captain Fritz Herrera said he and some barangay tanods accosted Eva after they saw the gun partially exposed from the girl’s waistband.
Herrera said they had just finished conducting preventive patrol in the barangay when they were informed about a shooting near the Cebu Ice Plant on M.J. Cuenco Ave. at around 1 a.m. yesterday.
The area is near the boundary of Barangays Lorega and Tejero.
He said that based on the information that reached him, one of the gunmen left his firearm with a woman.
When they reached the area, they spotted a group of youngsters walking away.
He said they tried to talk to the group and noticed that one of them, who turned out to be Eva, appeared to be uneasy and kept saying that her stomach was aching.
Herrera said they noticed the firearm protruding from her waist, prompting them to arrest her. He said Eva denied owning the gun.
Policemen also arrived to assist Herrera and the tanods in the arrest.
Herrera said he is still coordinating with FJGSS to assess whether they will file a complaint against Eva, considering that she is a minor.
He told Sun.Star Cebu that he has been conducting a campaign against the problem on gangs in his barangay such as regular preventive patrol and identifying the lair of gang members.
They have yet to confirm, though, if Eva is a gang member. (AIV/JTG)
Will there be a resurgence of the violent & deadly Frat wars? Your opinions pls!
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