IT WAS a bloody Saturday in Bacolod City and Calatrava town, Negros Occidental as a village councilman, a businessman and his helper were shot dead on a single day.

Killed were Kagawad Rhoule Jay Martir of Barangay 14, businessman Lucio Boloy, 33, and his helper, Inocencio Labos, 24, both of Purok Avocado in Barangay Buenavista, Calatrava town, on Saturday, December 12, 2021, the police said.

Calatrava Municipal Police Station Captain Robert Indiape said Boloy and Labos were onboard a motorcycle around 5 p.m. when they were shot with an alleged homemade 12-gauge shotgun in Sitio Dela Rosa about five kilometers from Barangay Buenavista proper.

Indiape said Labos and Boloy, who were into lumber business, were on their way to buy wood when they were both shot in the head and body.

He said it was not established who was driving the motorcycle when they were shot, adding that the victims died while being treated at the Calatrava District Hospital.

Indiape added that they are looking into grudge as a possible reason for the killing.

They already have a person of interest whom he refused to identify pending the filing of the case.

An hour later, Martir was also killed while he was sitting outside their other house at Lumina Subdivision in Barangay Vista Alegre, Bacolod City.

Investigation showed that Martir had just arrived home with his wife after playing basketball when he was shot by a lone suspect.

Captain Elmer Bonilla, commander of Police Station 7, said Martir died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds on his face and other parts of the body.

His wife, meanwhile, was not hurt.

Bonilla said based on the footage of a nearby closed-circuit television camera, the bonnet-wearing suspect alighted from a blue Toyota Corolla vehicle.

He said the suspect had three other companions inside the vehicle and they were also wearing bonnets.

Bonilla added that the security guard has no records of the vehicles coming in and out of the subdivision.

The victim’s mother-in-law, whose name was not disclosed, said that the security personnel should have a log of these vehicles.

She noted that a person in a nearby store saw the suspects’ vehicle parked near the residence of her son-in-law prior to the shooting but failed to record the plate number.

Martir, a first-termer councilman, has three kids and was a good person and has no known enemy, she said.

As of last night, operatives of Police Station 7 are still facing a blank wall as to the identities of the suspects and motive behind the killing.