Car driver, female passenger killed in Talisay city ambush

Policemen check the Nissan Sentra whose driver’s side window shows the bullet marks of gunmen who fired at the car in barangay Lawaan, Talisay City, killing driver and one female passenger. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

Two women  were visiting  churches in south Cebu when their car was ambushed in Talisay City about 8:40 a.m. yesterday by motorbike-riding assailants who fired a submachine gun at the driver’s side.

The driver was killed along with one female passenger, Lorna Lapinid, 53.

In the backseat, her sister-in-law  Maria Luisa Lapinid, 57,  was wounded.

The motive of the daytime attack is still being investigated but police are looking into the possibility that the driver was mistaken for someone else.

The slain driver Fritz Richard Cobong, 45, had just been hired the day before  to drive the Lapinid women  to various churches.

Cobong, a former  taxi driver,was identified by a 2012 ID card as a  police volunteer of the Guadalupe Police Station.

READ: Ex-police asset, businesswoman die in Talisay City ambush

The women visited San  Roque Church in Lipata, Minglanilla town and were on their way to visit an image of the Virgin Mary in Langub, Guadalupe in Cebu City  when their car was  attacked  along N. Bacalso Avenue in Lawaan 1, Talisay City.

Two assailants drove alongside  the  Nissan Sentra sedan as it slowed down to allow a pedestrian to cross the street near the corner leading to Camella Homes in Talisay.

The backrider fired through the car’s tinted window, using a high-powered KG-9  which is  a submachine.  Police recovered 14 empty shells from the crime scene.

Chief Insp. Germano Mallari, Talisay Police chief, said  witnesses  described assailants  wearing black jackets and full-face motorcycle helmets. The gunman was carrying a sling bag.

No witness was able to note down the motorcycle’s license plate number.

The attack occured  three weeks after businessman Jaime Villaceran was gunned down at the junction of Colon Street  and Osmeña Blvd. in downtown Cebu City.  The case is still unsolved.

“That is an isolated case,” said Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, directorate chief of staff of the Police Regional Office about the Talisay ambush.

The driver was shot in the chest and arm. Lorna Lapinid, who was seated beside him, was hit near her left armpit.

Maria Luisa, who was seated at the back, survived with two gunshot wounds near her stomach.

Campomanes said the target may have been either of the Lapinid women or the driver could have been mistaken for someone else.

Maria Luisa told police that  she arrived a few days ago from Ormoc City in Leyte, where her family owns a rice farm and a store.

She maintains a house in  Minglanilla town, with Lorna as caretaker and Cobong’s widow  as housekeeper. Lorna was the wife of Violeto Lapinid,  a farmer in Bogo City and younger brother of Maria Luisa’s husband Wilfredo.

Wilfredo was a police non-commissioned officer (PNCO)  once assigned  at the Regional Intelligence Division or R2 in the Police Regional Office 7.

“It’s possible that the target was Luisa’s husband and the driver  was just mistaken for the man,” Mallari said in Cebuano.

Mallari said police  learned that the husband Wilfredo had applied for early  retirement but didn’t know the status.

Cobong, the driver, was a nephew of retired police supt. Aureo Sanchez, who was formerly assigned to the Cebu City Police Office.

“Everyone we talked to said Cobong was a good person so most likely, the target was one of the two women or both,” Camponanes said.

Mallari said they also learned thatthe driver,  Cobong owed P2,000 rental  for the Kevin Mitch Taxi unit he drove.

The amount, however, was considered  too small to be a motive for an ambush.