ILOILO City – A woman with a gunshot wound on the chest was found dead in Sitio Buol, Barangay Talusan, Dumangas, Iloilo yesterday morning. Her mouth was covered with packing tape and her hands were tied behind her back.
Marlyn Serdeña of Barangay San Miguel, Buenavista, Guimaras was not immediately identified. According to Police Major Jogen Suegay, Dumangas police chief, residents of Sitio Buol said she was not from their place.
Serdeña, whose identity was ascertained only early last night, was wearing a black and white blouse and a pair of tight-fitting blue jeans.
She was last seen alive on May 24 in Molo district here.
No spent bullet shells were recovered from the area where the body was found but police learned from residents they heard four successive bursts of gunfire.
Suegay said the killer/s may have used a revolver, not a pistol.
A blue car with no license plate was seen leaving the area just minutes after gunshots were heard, residents further told the police.
Serdeña, who was temporarily staying at a boardinghouse in Barangay Calumpang, Molo and allegedly a member of the Budol-budol Gang, was the fourth person brutally killed this month in Iloilo and Guimaras.
On May 19, Romar Ordiales, 31, of Barangay Obrero, La Paz, Iloilo City was found dead in Barangay Lanipe, Nueva Valencia, Guimaras. He had multiple gunshot wounds.
Two days after, on May 21, Tristan Zachary Eribal, 19, of Barangay Caingin, La Paz and uncle Jimrod Eribal, 22, were found dead in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district.
The Eribals’ eyes and mouths were covered with packing tape, and their hands bound with tape, too. They died of multiple gunshot and stab wounds.
The Eribals were suspected members of a robbery group while Ordiales was charged with child abuse in 2015.
There were speculations that vigilantes were behind the killings.
“There is no basis to conclude there are vigilante groups in Western Visayas,” said Police Brigadier General John Bulalacao, regional police director.
He described as “isolated” these recent killings.
Bulalacao, however, stressed, “We don’t tolerate extrajudicial killings.”/PN
