Still unknown gunmen shot and killed on Friday the father of the suspect in the killing of three people, including the former mayor of Lamitan City, Basilan, inside the campus of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.
Reports reaching Camp Crame said that two men who were riding a motorcycle shot and killed Rolando Yumol, 69, at around 6:45 a.m. in front of his house at Barangay Maligaya in Lamitan City.
Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao police director Brig. Gen. Arthur Cabalona said Yumol, a retired member of the defunct Philippine Constabulary, sustained four gunshot wounds in the body.
He was rushed to the Lamitan City District Hospital but was declared dead upon arrival by doctors as a result of the wounds inflicted by bullets from a .45 caliber pistol.
Yumol was the father of Dr. Chao Tiao Yumol, the self-confessed suspect in the killing of former Lamitan City Mayor Rose Furigay and two others inside Ateneo’s campus in Quezon City on Sunday.
The younger Yumol has admitted to the killing and had been charged by the police with three counts of murder, frustrated murder and illegal possession of firearms.
Furigay, accompanied by her executive assistant, Victor Capistrano, was at the Ateneo to attend the physical graduation of her daughter, Hannah, from her law studies, when she was attacked by the younger Yumol.
Capistrano and a security guard of the school were also killed while Hannah was wounded.
It was not known whether the killing of the elder Yumol has anything to do with the murder of Furigay and the two others as the motive of the attack is still being investigated.
There were reports that the killing of Rolando could have been a “rido” or clan war between the Furigay and Yumol families, or it was exacted as a vengeance for the murder of Furigay, but this was dismissed by the police pending the results of the ongoing investigation.
“Our police personnel in Lamitan City are already conducting an investigation regarding the case. So far, it is speculative to assume its direct relation to the shooting incident that happened last Sunday at the Ateneo de Manila University,” PNP Public Information Office chief Brig. Gen. Roderick Augustus Balba said.
Cabalona said Rolando has death threats and he had been provided with security. However, the gunmen got their chance on him after he strayed outside of his house early in the morning.
The police director did not say the source of the death threats or the people who wanted the elder Yumol dead.