Businesswoman shot dead in Tacurong City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Police probers are still facing a blank wall on Friday night’s gun attack in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat that left a moneylender dead.

Citing reports from the Tacurong City Police Station and the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office, Region 12 police director Brig. Gen. Jimili Macaraeg said on Saturday that the victim, Irene Baño Manzano, died on the spot from bullet wounds in the head.

Manzano is a known moneylender operating in Tacurong City and in nearby towns in Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato provinces.

Talks are spreading in Tacurong City hinting that probers are looking into the possibility that "love triangle" could be one angle for the apparently premeditated murder of Manzano. 

Manzano had just embarked on her Toyota Fortuner sports utility vehicle parked along Lapu-Lapu Street in Tacurong City and was about to start its engine when one of two men on a motorcycle that pulled over nearby shot her repeatedly with a pistol, killing her instantly.

Probers in the Tacurong City Police Station are still trying to identify the two men behind the atrocity.

The suspects speedily motored away after seeing Manzano slump on the steering wheel of her vehicle.