BAGUIO CITY – A 39-year old former Overseas Filipino |worker (OFW) died after she was repeatedly shot at close range by a still inidentified lone gunman inside a parked passenger jeepney along Lower Mabini Street here around 7:30 pm Monday.
Senior Inspector Jaime Aquintey, chief of Station No. 7 of the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO), identified the fatality as Geraldine Pugong Dumayahon, 39, a former OFW, who hails from Kiangan, Ifugao but is temporarily residing in Purok 3, Gibraltar, Baguio City.
Initial police investigation showed the victim boarded a Mines View-bound passenger jeepney en route home when the still unidentified lone gunman approached her from behind and shot her twice on the back at close range.
Because of the commotion created by the incident, passengers and bystanders were not able to give a positive identification of the gunman who immediately simply walked away from the crime scene after the incident.
Concerned passengers immediately rushed the victim to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) for medical treatment but she was pronounced dead on arrival by attending physicians due to two fatal gunshot wounds, one on her back and another on her nape.
Responding police operatives and elements of the Scene of the Crime Operation (SOCO) team recovered from the crime scene two spent shells of a calibre .45 pistol which was used by the suspect in the perpetration of the said crime that again tainted the city’s peace and order situation.
Probers theorised the motive behind the victim’s murder could be deeply rooted because the lone gunman made sure of his target and used a high-powered firearm to make sure that the victim would not survive the latest shooting incident in the Summer Capital.
The victim’s remains now lie in state in a local funeral parlor along Marcos highway awaiting the decision of her relatives on her being laid to rest in the city or she will be brought home to her native town.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan ordered the BCPO investigators to work double time in order to identify the suspect and for him to be made answerable for the crime that he committed right in a busy jeepney terminal.
“We are alarmed over the type of crimes being committed even in busy areas of the city that is why our local police force must work double time to ensure that local residents and visitors will be spared from such unscrupulous activities of erring individuals wanting to create trouble in the city,” Domogan stressed.
By Dexter A. See
