PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 8, 2013) – Unidentified gunmen executed two teenagers in an attack in Pagadian City in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur, police said on Sunday.
Police said the victims – Manilyn Besirel, 14, and Mar-Mar, 18, were both peppered with bullets in the village of Bulatok before midnight on December 6. Residents in the area reported the killings to the police.
Forensic investigators have recovered at least 11 bullet casings fired from a .45-caliber pistol near the bodies of the victims. But it was unclear how many gunmen were involved in the murder, but gun attacks carried out by suspected hired killers and extrajudicial killings are not uncommon in Pagadian, the provincial capital and seat of the regional government agencies.
The victims were not natives of the village and local authorities could not say whether the two had been abducted and executed in the area. Both resided near Agora Market in Santa Lucia District in downtown Pagadian.
The motive of the killings is unknown and police said an investigation has been begun into the murders of the teenagers. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack. (Mindanao Examiner)
20