BY RAMIL B. BAYLON
ILOILO CITY - An elementary basketball coach was killed and a college student was injured following a broad-daylight shooting Tuesday afternoon along the busy street here.
The killing marks the first bloody incident to happen in Iloilo City in 2012, exactly the same day last year when the East West Bank along Ledesma St. was robbed.
While no one had died during the heist wherein robbers carted away P12.7 million, this time, however, one innocent life perished.
Nestor Calesterio, 50, of Bo. Obrero, Lapuz has died while being treated at St. Paul's Hospital. He succumbed to a single gunshot wound to the head from a .45 caliber pistol.
But the shooting rampage undertaken by Samuel Manajero, 45, of barangay Indorohan, Badiangan simply did not end there.
After shooting Calesterio, coach of the elementary basketball team of San Yat Sen High School at Mapa St., City Proper, Manajero held hostage Kimberly Claire Umadhay, 19, a third year HRM student of Collegio Del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus.
Umadhay was on board a CPU jeep heading towards the Capitol area when the armed suspect tried to make her a shield on the cops pursuing him. She was allegedly shot to the leg when she resisted.
Paranoid?
In killing Calesterio, Manajero said he thought of the victim as an NBI agent who would supposedly try to arrest him when they accidentally bumped each other in front of Zambo Bazaar along JM Basa St., City Proper around 3:20 pm yesterday.
In an interview, Supt. Orly Gabinete, ICPO investigation section chief, said Manajero has admitted to having an arrest warrant for the crime of murder that happened in Badiangan town a few years ago, and he shot the victim right away after allegedly sensing that he gestured to draw a firearm.
Gabinete was referring to the death of Gerry Cortuna, a jail guard of the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center, who was gunned down on May 3, 2009 while attending a fiesta in barangay Agusipan, Badiangan.
Tagged in the said killing were Manajero and four others.
Meanwhile, the incident yesterday happened so quickly that even stall owners and vendors nearby haven't almost witnessed it, until they saw the bloodied face of the victim as his body was helplessly lying on the concrete sidewalk.
The escape
Immediately after the incident, Manajero reportedly headed on foot towards the Capitol area.
The police were alerted about the incident and relayed the information through radios to all police units in the city.
At that time, PO1 Lee Demandante and PO1 Michael Malan were on board a motorcycle doing a routine patrol in their area of responsibility along Quezon St., City Proper.
The duo proceeded to the crime scene but after gathering necessary information about the identity of the suspect, they set off to hunt him down.
Somewhere in front of Amigo Plaza, the suspect had tried to engage the two police officers pursuing him. Manajero boarded a passenger jeep in an attempt to escape, but heavy traffic made it impossible for him to get away.
Instead, the determined suspect held hostage Umadhay, who was among the five passengers of the CPU-bound jeep. Manajero allegedly shot his captive to the leg when she resisted.
The shootout
Contrary, however, to the claim of the suspect that Umadhay was hit by the cops, the two police officers, Demandante and Malan, had said they didn't fire even a single shot at Manajero while on board the jeep to avoid civilian casualty.
The exchange of fire took place only after the suspect alighted from a jeep and fled towards the St. Joseph lumber yard.
Manajero fired almost a dozen rounds of ammunition at the two young police officers. They too open fired at him but missed.
The surrender
At the lumber yard, the suspect was practically trapped. As SWAT and additional force from ICPO led by Supt. Uldarico Garbanzos, ICPO operations chief, gathered in front of the lumber yard, Manajero held hostage an employee in a desperate attempt to get away from the cops.
Bernard Ho, a relative of former city councilor Irene Ong who is the owner of St. Joseph lumber, was held at gunpoint inside the office.
Garbanzos said the suspect demanded a getaway car and he would free the hostage in return.
Saying it was heavy traffic outside and it's nearly impossible for him to easily run away, Garbanzos had convinced him to better surrender or face a certain death.
After a 30-minute negotiation, Manajero gave himself up to the police, avoiding further casualties.
In his surrender, police recovered the .45 caliber pistol which the suspect used in killing Calesterio, five live ammos, and a cellphone which contains absolutely nothing in the inbox or outbox.
Garbanzos said Manajero may have destroyed the sim card and emptied all the contents of his cellphone to get rid of any trace of evidence and information that could pin him down.
Police also recovered a driver's license bearing his photo under the name Wilson Gonzalez Flores from Bicutan, Taguig, raising doubts whether or not the suspect was telling the truth about his identity.
Latest information, however, said that Manajero, who was also at the police rogue's gallery of the city police due to a swindling case, only used it as his screen name, and that document may have been a fake, prompting the police to further dig deeper into his real identity.
Police are still conducting further investigation to determine what could have been the motive in the killing, even as there were reports that said that Manajero may have been hired to kill Calesterio.
His alibi suggesting that he was acting paranoid because he knew he may be arrested at anytime is somewhat flimsy, according to the police.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said the victim was figured in a mauling incident at SM City Iloilo in November last year.
But it is still premature to link that incident to his death, until the police could already come up with their investigation. /VDH
ILOILO CITY - An elementary basketball coach was killed and a college student was injured following a broad-daylight shooting Tuesday afternoon along the busy street here.
The killing marks the first bloody incident to happen in Iloilo City in 2012, exactly the same day last year when the East West Bank along Ledesma St. was robbed.
While no one had died during the heist wherein robbers carted away P12.7 million, this time, however, one innocent life perished.
Nestor Calesterio, 50, of Bo. Obrero, Lapuz has died while being treated at St. Paul's Hospital. He succumbed to a single gunshot wound to the head from a .45 caliber pistol.
But the shooting rampage undertaken by Samuel Manajero, 45, of barangay Indorohan, Badiangan simply did not end there.
After shooting Calesterio, coach of the elementary basketball team of San Yat Sen High School at Mapa St., City Proper, Manajero held hostage Kimberly Claire Umadhay, 19, a third year HRM student of Collegio Del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus.
Umadhay was on board a CPU jeep heading towards the Capitol area when the armed suspect tried to make her a shield on the cops pursuing him. She was allegedly shot to the leg when she resisted.
Paranoid?
In killing Calesterio, Manajero said he thought of the victim as an NBI agent who would supposedly try to arrest him when they accidentally bumped each other in front of Zambo Bazaar along JM Basa St., City Proper around 3:20 pm yesterday.
In an interview, Supt. Orly Gabinete, ICPO investigation section chief, said Manajero has admitted to having an arrest warrant for the crime of murder that happened in Badiangan town a few years ago, and he shot the victim right away after allegedly sensing that he gestured to draw a firearm.
Gabinete was referring to the death of Gerry Cortuna, a jail guard of the Iloilo Rehabilitation Center, who was gunned down on May 3, 2009 while attending a fiesta in barangay Agusipan, Badiangan.
Tagged in the said killing were Manajero and four others.
Meanwhile, the incident yesterday happened so quickly that even stall owners and vendors nearby haven't almost witnessed it, until they saw the bloodied face of the victim as his body was helplessly lying on the concrete sidewalk.
The escape
Immediately after the incident, Manajero reportedly headed on foot towards the Capitol area.
The police were alerted about the incident and relayed the information through radios to all police units in the city.
At that time, PO1 Lee Demandante and PO1 Michael Malan were on board a motorcycle doing a routine patrol in their area of responsibility along Quezon St., City Proper.
The duo proceeded to the crime scene but after gathering necessary information about the identity of the suspect, they set off to hunt him down.
Somewhere in front of Amigo Plaza, the suspect had tried to engage the two police officers pursuing him. Manajero boarded a passenger jeep in an attempt to escape, but heavy traffic made it impossible for him to get away.
Instead, the determined suspect held hostage Umadhay, who was among the five passengers of the CPU-bound jeep. Manajero allegedly shot his captive to the leg when she resisted.
The shootout
Contrary, however, to the claim of the suspect that Umadhay was hit by the cops, the two police officers, Demandante and Malan, had said they didn't fire even a single shot at Manajero while on board the jeep to avoid civilian casualty.
The exchange of fire took place only after the suspect alighted from a jeep and fled towards the St. Joseph lumber yard.
Manajero fired almost a dozen rounds of ammunition at the two young police officers. They too open fired at him but missed.
The surrender
At the lumber yard, the suspect was practically trapped. As SWAT and additional force from ICPO led by Supt. Uldarico Garbanzos, ICPO operations chief, gathered in front of the lumber yard, Manajero held hostage an employee in a desperate attempt to get away from the cops.
Bernard Ho, a relative of former city councilor Irene Ong who is the owner of St. Joseph lumber, was held at gunpoint inside the office.
Garbanzos said the suspect demanded a getaway car and he would free the hostage in return.
Saying it was heavy traffic outside and it's nearly impossible for him to easily run away, Garbanzos had convinced him to better surrender or face a certain death.
After a 30-minute negotiation, Manajero gave himself up to the police, avoiding further casualties.
In his surrender, police recovered the .45 caliber pistol which the suspect used in killing Calesterio, five live ammos, and a cellphone which contains absolutely nothing in the inbox or outbox.
Garbanzos said Manajero may have destroyed the sim card and emptied all the contents of his cellphone to get rid of any trace of evidence and information that could pin him down.
Police also recovered a driver's license bearing his photo under the name Wilson Gonzalez Flores from Bicutan, Taguig, raising doubts whether or not the suspect was telling the truth about his identity.
Latest information, however, said that Manajero, who was also at the police rogue's gallery of the city police due to a swindling case, only used it as his screen name, and that document may have been a fake, prompting the police to further dig deeper into his real identity.
Police are still conducting further investigation to determine what could have been the motive in the killing, even as there were reports that said that Manajero may have been hired to kill Calesterio.
His alibi suggesting that he was acting paranoid because he knew he may be arrested at anytime is somewhat flimsy, according to the police.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said the victim was figured in a mauling incident at SM City Iloilo in November last year.
But it is still premature to link that incident to his death, until the police could already come up with their investigation. /VDH