ORMOC CITY– A 33-year-old mother and her three children were wounded after a group of armed men stormed their house in Purok 3 of Barangay Villahermosa, about 20 kms away from the city proper of Calbayog, Saturday.
Police identified the victims as Gemma Benio Derio, 33, and her children, Germa,18; Jiggy, 9; Benio, 7; and Jhayne, 4, the only one who did not sustain any injury due to the incident.
Derio, it was learned, is a sister of the village chairwoman, Judy Ann Derio.
The suspects, according to the victims, were a group of about 20 persons armed with assorted caliber of firearms some were wearing fatigue uniforms with combat boots and civilian clothes on board three vans and a Toyota Innova.
Police report stated that at about 7:50 am on Saturday, they received information from the Revitalized Pulis sa Barangay (RPSB) Villahermosa, that there was a presence of armed men at the stated place and reported about injured person who was already brought by Migara Rescuer to the nearest hospital for immediate medical attention.
Initial information revealed that there was an alleged undetermined ordinance inside the house of the victim.
Acting on the said report, the local police together with EOD K9 (SPECU) proceeded to the place of incident.
The police recovered several empty shells of undetermined caliber and noticed that the power transformer bore gunshots, and a window jamb was destroyed due to the explosion of an unknown explosive.
Initial investigation conducted by responding police disclosed that allegedly at about 3:30 in the morning on Saturday, the armed men on board of alleged four vehicles alighted from their vehicles armed with undetermined caliber of firearms wearing fatigue and civilian clothes. Thereafter, the resident heard a loud explosion, then a blackout occurred in the entire barangay.
(ROBERT DEJON)
