ILOILO City – Motorcycle-riding gunmen peppered a 33-year-old resident of Barangay Abaca, San Enrique, Iloilo with bullets.
Police were still trying to determine the motive in the killing of Jay Balboa as of this writing.
They were inclined to believe illegal drugs had something to do with the murder – Balboa was a drug surrenderer, police said.
Driving a tricycle, Balboa was bound for home at 5:20 p.m. on Aug. 20 when two armed persons on board a motorcycle waylaid and fired at him, San Enrique chief of police Senior Inspector Fernando Punzalan Jr. said, citing investigation.
Balboa died of multiple gunshot wounds on the head and body. The shooters then sped toward the town proper, police said.
“The suspects tailed the victim and attacked him when he reached a barangay road. This was planned,” said Punzalan.
Police have yet to identify any suspect. They were also looking into old grudges as another possible motive.
Balboa, a suspected drug pusher, turned himself in to the San Enrique police station in 2016 amid the intensified crackdown on drug users and dealers.
Punzalan noted that, based on their monitoring, Balboa “stopped selling drugs” after surrendering./PN
