BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – “Riding in tandem” was the term police, and even the mainstream press, used to describe the spate of assassinations or extra judicial killing in the country under the Duterte government.
A term used to describe an assassin backriding on a motorcycle who would shoot their victim or victims at close range.
Yesterday, 8 November 2021, however, a different kind of killing took place in the northern Negros town of Calatrava, where a killer rode on a Canter truck along with his target.
As the killing took place in that town, police here are looking at a link between the death of a suspected pimp and an alleged prostitute.
Reports from the Calatrava Police said Jay Ortega Sabulbora, a villager of Bagong Silang in Don Salvador Benedicto, was shot around 6am in Candi-is in Tigbon village, Calatrava by a killer who was riding with him on the truck.
The unidentified man was disguised as a pahinante or a laborer who shot Sabulbora when he got down at Tigbon.
The killer fired twice, hitting the victim on his right side, on the shoulder and arm but the victim was able to flee from the suspect who gave chase.
When the killer caught up with the victim about 200 meters away, he shot again twice, hitting the victim on the head and chest, wounds that proved fatal for the victim who was declared dead by physicians upon arriving at the government health center.
Meanwhile, here in the city, a police deputy station chief said they are looking at a possible connection between the slaying of Renalyn Maming alias Mayang, 23, and Aljun Rey Arabelo, 22 a barker, and who also acted as a pimp, according to those who knew him at the downtown area.
Police Lt. Jonito Pastrana said both were shot on the same spot at the Reclamation Area, a private reclaimed property here.
Arabelo was riding his bike when the killer shot him and was alive when brought to the hospital but later died due to his wound, a gunshot on the head.
Pastrana said witnesses saw Maming and Arabelo arguing days before Maming was shot.
Police cannot say for ceratin what the relationship of the two is.
