DUMAGUETE CITY — Dumaguete businessman Demetrio Larena III was shot and killed by a still unidentified gunman around 9 a.m. Thursday as he was driving his Pajero SUV in barangay Campaclan, Sibulan, some 7 kilometers north of here.
Initial police investigation disclosed that Larena, who just celebrated his 65th birthday last Sunday, was driving north when, upon reaching the Magsaysay Elementary School in barangay Campaclan, he was flagged down by a suspect wearing a long-sleeved shirt and slacks. Before Larena could stop, gunshots were heard from inside the vehicle, according to bystanders, and the vehicle coasted to a stop in front of a sari-sari store some 25 meters away.
“We thought the sound of gunfire was coming from the nearby cemetery, some 100 meters away,” said a storeowner interviewed by the Dumaguete Metropost who saw Larena’s vehicle pass by moments before the shooting.
The gunfire alerted two policemen–PO3 Crisanto Garet, Jr., of the Municipality of Amlan Police Office and a certain P01 Fabres of the Regional Mobile Group who happened to be passing by on a passenger bus. They got out of the vehicle and fired at one suspect who was opening the driver’s door of the SUV.
The suspects exchanged fire with the policemen, while hiding behind the open driver’s door of the SUV.
Customers eating inside the sari-sari store all ducked for cover. “Not one of us could see what was happening outside,” said a customer who asked not to be identified.
The suspects soon commandeered a motorcycle owned by a certain Rene Daig, and the suspects rode away. The Honda Wave motorycle was later found abandoned by policemen from the Municipality of Valencia in barangay Malabo, west of Dumaguete City. Police are pursuing the suspects, who are believed to have fled westward.
Larena had two gunshot wounds–one below the right ear and another one in the head. Police also recovered two shells of a .45 caliber bullet and one 9 mm bullet.
Larena, a grandson of the first Negros Oriental Governor Demetrio Larena, owned the Rural Bank of Amlan, as well as the Agencia Carmen pawnshops in Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental. He was also the incumbent president of the Rotary Club of Dumaguete.
Sr. Supt. Edward Carranza, PNP Provincial Director, ordered a manhunt for the suspects. No motive has yet been established for the killing.
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