By Edwin Iyo and Nitz Arancon
POLICE are looking into the possibility that the attempt on the life Mindanao Container Terminal X-Ray Unit chief Alma Lomondot on Friday and the ambush of another customs official last year were the handiwork of the same group.
Investigators noted that the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Lomondot last week and the attempt on the life of lawyer Emilito Aquino in March last year were similar.
Aquino was the collector of the sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, at the time he was attacked near the foot of the Maharlika Bridge and Kauswagan road last year.
Like the attack on Aquino, Lomondot was also shot by gunmen riding a motorcycle. The weapons used are believed to be similar.
Lomondot was driving a gray Hilux Toyota pick-up truck with license plates YKL-722 when motorcycleing men fired shots at her along the highway in Bugo at around 4:30 pm on Friday.
Customs district collector Lourdes Mangaoang told DxIF-Bombo Radyo that Lomondot, 46, was hit in stomach and leg.
One of Lomondot’s kidneys was also reportedly hit by a bullet.
Lomondot, according to Mangaoang in another interview, intentionally smashed the pick-up truck against a concrete fence in order to get attention.
“She had a presence of mind,” said Mangaoang.
The victim was rushed to the Cagayan University Medical Center in Gusa. Doctors initially said she was out of danger but she remains under close observation at presstime.
Police said there were two possible motives: 1) the attack was work related and 2) it was due to grudges resulting from a domestic problem.
Lomondot is said to have separated from her husband who also works in the customs bureau.
But sources in the Bureau of Customs here said it was unlikely that the attack was an offshoot of domestic problems.
“The husband is a very good man and won’t do something like this. Their children are all professionals,” a source in the BOC told The Gold Star Daily.
Sources in the BOC were one in saying that they were convinced the attempt on Lomondot’s life had something to do with her work in the MCT.
Senior Insp. Lornoel Ochate, chief of the Puerto police, said investigators have continued to gather more information in the hope of identifying suspects.
Police were also trying to find out the last people Lomondot talked with before the attack.
Ochate said police have noted that the gunmen used a blue motorcycle without license plates. The gunmen who attacked Aquino last year also used a motorcycle without license plates.
Lomondot was reportedly on her way to the MCT in Tagoloan town from Sta. Cecilia Village in Gusa when she was attacked near the plant of Del Monte Philippines.
Police said they found eight empty shells and three slugs from a caliber .45 pistol at the crime scene. Those who attacked Aquino last year also used a caliber .45 pistol.
Ochate said investigators brought Lomondot’s vehicle to the police crime laboratory here for examination.
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