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Police identified the victim as Onesimo Salga, Sr., 60, principal of the Airport Village Elementary School principal. He sustained two gunshot wounds to the head.
The victim's wife, Vivian, told police that she was meters away from the principal's when a man wearing a bonnet entered and shot the victim twice, at around 5 p.m. March 25. She said she hid in the comfort room until the assailant fled.
Witnesses said the gunman ran towards his two companions who were waiting outside the principal’s office and fled in a motorcycle, according to a police report.
The killing happened minutes after the school's Tribute to Parents Program. The police recovered three caliber .45 empty shells in the crime scene.
"The DepEd (Department of Education) family of Bukidnon denounces the brutal murder of our colleague in the strongest terms and enjoins the officers of the law to apprehend the perpetrator/ perpetrators the soonest possible and bring them before the bar of justice," a statement dated March 25 from the office of Dr. Gloria Benigno, Bukidnon schools superintendent said.
"We in the DepEd Bukidnon serve our people by fighting ignorance using books and pens as our weapons," the statement said citing teachers and school heads as the only public servants visible five days a week even in Bukidnon's remotest villages.
Gene Salga, the principal's brother, said the killing was "definitely job-related." He said they have called on the police and the local government to "do everything for justice." (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)