Gunmen abduct lending collector, kill another

• Source: http://www.journal.com.ph/news/provincial/gunmen-abduct-lending-collector-kill-another
• Thursday, June 18, 2015

By Alfred Dalizon With Zaida delos Reyes-Palanca

GUNMEN abducted a 24-year-old lending collector in Zamboanga del Sur after robbing her before shooting two men and killing one of them while escaping Wednesday night.

A report to Philippine National Police officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo A. Espina said the five heavily-armed suspects held up Kathy Grace Sarabia inside her residence in Bgy. San Jose, Imelda, Zamboanga del Sur, at 8 p.m.

After taking her valuables, the gunmen forced Sarabia to drive for them using her Honda CRV. Thirty minutes later, policemen manning a checkpoint in Bgy. Canakan, Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay spotted the car and tried to stop it.

However, the suspects ordered Sarabia to step on the gas, prompting officers to give chase. Policemen later bumped the vehicle from behind causing it to stop.

The suspects jumped off the vehicle while firing their guns and were able to escape under cover of darkness.

The officers recovered the victim unharmed.

PRO9 director Chief Supt. Edgar Basbas said that shortly after, unidentified men believed to be the fleeing suspects shot Danny Gulmatico, 50, and Christian Cortel, 19, at the fishpond area in Sitio Punawan, Bgy. Sta. Cruz, also in Kabasalan.

Gulmatico died on the spot due to multiple gunshot wounds while Cortel was wounded and taken to a local hospital.

Basbas said a massive hunt for the suspects is still underway.