ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / June 12, 2014) – Two gunmen, believed to be hired killers, barged in a hotel in the southern Filipino city of Zamboanga on Thursday morning and fatally shot its owner and a security guard before being captured following a firefight with policemen.
Police were interrogating the two men – Wilbert Villareal and Ernesto Angeles – who attacked Salwa Julwadi, owner of the Hotel Salwa, and her security guard. A third gunman escaped on a motorcycle and is being tracked down by the police.
Julwadi was having breakfast when gunmen shot her in the face, while the security guard sustained gunshot wounds in the chest, according to a police spokesman Inspector Dahlan Samuddin.
He said the two killers, all residents of Zamboanga City, were cornered by pursuing policemen in Canelar Moret where the duo was captured. “The motive of the attack is still unknown, but investigation is going on,” Samuddin told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
In her last Facebook post, the 48-year old Julwadi, who was separated from her husband, wrote: “Mahirap hanapin ang tunay na pag-ibig.” (It’s difficult to find true love.) wrote: “Mahirap hanapin ang tunay na pag-ibig.” (It’s difficult to find true love.)
There was no immediate statement from Julwadi’s family about the killing. Julwadi also ran in the 2010 congressional elections as an independent candidate in Basilan province, but lost.
The daring attack occurred as local government officials were celebrating the 116th anniversary of the Philippine Independence and a day after Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar put up a fund as reward money for anybody who could help or provide authorities with a flow of information about crime and criminals.
This, after Salazar announced that the local government will give monetary rewards to civilian informants who provided authorities with information that led to the arrest of two kidnappers – one from Zamboanga del Norte and the other is a native of Zamboanga Sibugay province.
She said the city government has allocated P1 million reward money for this year.
It was not immediately known how much reward the informants would get from the local government, but the private sector said the reward money is not enough, saying security remains a big problem in Zamboanga City where ransom kidnappings and gun attacks are not uncommon. (With a report from Ely Dumaboc)
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