CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 25 Oct) – Nathaniel Ibalang, 14, ran frantically for his life for about 1.7 kilometers from Gaston Park to a shopping mall near the highway Sunday afternoon trying to escape from his pursuers who are rival gang members.
The crime scene, along Corrales Ave., between Northern Mindanao Medical Center (left) and the Ayala Centrio Mall. Photo courtesy of Google Street View
When his pursuers finally caught up with him with no law enforcers at all intervening along this city’s main streets, they stabbed him twice, killing him on the spot.
CCTV images culled from social media showed Ibalang and his friends desperately shouting for help as their pursuers closed in on them.
Despite passing through at least six barangays, nobody lifted a finger to help, considering that Gaston Park is just across City Hall. There were no tanods nor policemen aboard their brand new Toyota Fortuners on the streets, when traffic was light on a Sunday afternoon.
After running 1.5 kilometers, Ibalang finally arrived beside the Ayala Centrio Mall along Corrales Ave. just across the Northern Mindanao Medical Center, where a group of motorelas were parked waiting for passengers.
A netizen was able to record the final scene with his mobile phone where Ibalang’s pursuers ganged up on him beside a motorela and delivered two fatal knife blows to his body.
A bleeding Ibalang fell to the ground and died on the spot.
His killers, members of the “Soy Shit Dem” gang, escaped running towards C.M. Recto Avenue.
Police officers led by Col. Aaron Mandia, Cagayan de Oro City Police Office chief, arrested gang member Raul Lumamba Jr. in his residence in Barangay Gusa Monday.
Mandia said a 10-inch knife believed to be the murder weapon was found in the possession of the suspect.
The police chief said Lumamba’s gang had an altercation with Ibalang who was a member of the rival gang “Kaibigan lang Kami.”
“Ibalang and his group started it first when they threw a bottle at us,” Lumamba told reporters in the vernacular.
Mayor Rolando Uy met with the grandparents of Ibalang at the City Hall Monday afternoon even as he called on parents to check on their children’s activities.
Uy also asked the police to profile all gang members and their leaders in the city.
“I’d like to talk with the gang leaders and their parents to stop the violence”, Uy said.
In an interview with reporters, 79-year-old Dominga Ibalang said their family is so poor that they could not even afford to buy a casket for her grandson.
Uy said the city government would shoulder the burial expenses of the victim. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
