--CONFUCIUS
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The manner the senseless crime was executed, the attacker’s behavior, and the circumstances before it happened can be compared to the celebrated Hultman–Chapman murder case, which occurred in Makati City in the Philippines 27 years ago.
But in the shooting incident that killed a 15-year-old male member of the Jalandoni family in Laguda Subdivision in Brgy. Magsaysay, La Paz, Iloilo City on June 28, 2018, all the victims belong in one family.
Victim Jezreel Jalandoni, a Grade 10 student at Alphacrest Academy, suffered gunshot wounds on his head, neck and nose. He died while being treated at Medicus Medical Center in Mandurriao.
His mother, Marites, who was driving their vehicle, and brother, Jedidiah, 18, also incurred multiple wounds but survived.
The actuation of suspected triggerman, Teopisto “Totong” Castroverde Sebanta, 47, was similar in many ways to that of Claudio Teehankee Jr., lone gunman in the unprovoked killings of Roland John Chapman and Maureen Hultman inside the Dasmariñas Village, Makati City on July 13, 1991.
Either they were “psycho killers” or trigger-happy maniacs under the influence of illegal substance or liquor. Or both.
-o0o-
Both Teehankee Jr. and Sebanta approached their victims’ vehicles and started shooting them at close range.
Teehankee Jr., son of the late former Chief Justice Claudio Sr., first stopped Hultman’s group and asked for their companion, Jussi Olavi Leino’s identification card. When Chapman intervened, Teehankee shot him dead.
He then shot Hultman, who died in the hospital after several weeks. Leino, who was also shot, survived.
Like the victims in Makati City, the victims in Iloilo City were also unarmed and just came from a dinner.
Sebanta did not say any word and started peppering the victims’ vehicle with bullets when he saw it.
Both the attacks happened at night; Teehankee Jr. and Sebanta “shot” the victims several times even if they could not defend themselves as they were unarmed and not prepared to engage the shooters in a deadly altercation.
The only difference is Teehankee Jr. was arrested and convicted in the trial court.
His conviction was sustained by the Supreme Court, while Sabanta remained at large as of this writing.
But in the shooting incident that killed a 15-year-old male member of the Jalandoni family in Laguda Subdivision in Brgy. Magsaysay, La Paz, Iloilo City on June 28, 2018, all the victims belong in one family.
Victim Jezreel Jalandoni, a Grade 10 student at Alphacrest Academy, suffered gunshot wounds on his head, neck and nose. He died while being treated at Medicus Medical Center in Mandurriao.
His mother, Marites, who was driving their vehicle, and brother, Jedidiah, 18, also incurred multiple wounds but survived.
The actuation of suspected triggerman, Teopisto “Totong” Castroverde Sebanta, 47, was similar in many ways to that of Claudio Teehankee Jr., lone gunman in the unprovoked killings of Roland John Chapman and Maureen Hultman inside the Dasmariñas Village, Makati City on July 13, 1991.
Either they were “psycho killers” or trigger-happy maniacs under the influence of illegal substance or liquor. Or both.
-o0o-
Both Teehankee Jr. and Sebanta approached their victims’ vehicles and started shooting them at close range.
Teehankee Jr., son of the late former Chief Justice Claudio Sr., first stopped Hultman’s group and asked for their companion, Jussi Olavi Leino’s identification card. When Chapman intervened, Teehankee shot him dead.
He then shot Hultman, who died in the hospital after several weeks. Leino, who was also shot, survived.
Like the victims in Makati City, the victims in Iloilo City were also unarmed and just came from a dinner.
Sebanta did not say any word and started peppering the victims’ vehicle with bullets when he saw it.
Both the attacks happened at night; Teehankee Jr. and Sebanta “shot” the victims several times even if they could not defend themselves as they were unarmed and not prepared to engage the shooters in a deadly altercation.
The only difference is Teehankee Jr. was arrested and convicted in the trial court.
His conviction was sustained by the Supreme Court, while Sabanta remained at large as of this writing.
-o0o-
I was the lone Filipino in a jampacked Colombian resto on corner 82nd and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, New York City July 3 afternoon when Colombia battled England in one of the last and most exciting Round 16 matches.
There, I witnessed how the Colombians heartily cheered their soccer players in the giant screen and how they noisily exploded when Colombia leveled the score at 1-1 just when the match was about to end in the last five minutes.
After failing to score in a five-minute extension, both England and Colombia tore each other apart in the tortuous penalty shootout.
England snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a decisive 4-3 to book a quarterfinal slot in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia.
The Englishmen broke the Colombian fans’ hearts, including the sympathetic Latino crowd in Moscow and in the Colombian resto here in Queens.
I saw tears in their eyes as they all disappeared one by one, while I stayed behind for another couple of minutes to finish my smoothie.
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