TACLOBAN CITY – A mother and her three children were shot and wounded in their house before dawn on Saturday, February 10, in Calbayog City, Samar.
Police identified the victims as Gemma Derio, 33, and her children aged 18, nine, and seven. Her four-year-old daughter was unharmed.
Investigation said about 20 armed men wearing fatigue and civilian clothes arrived in Derio’s house onboard four vehicles.
Residents heard a loud explosion followed by a power interruption after the suspects allegedly fired at an electric post.
Judy Ann Derio, chairman of Barangay Villahermosa and the sister of Gemma, said her sibling was carrying her seven-year-old daughter and knocked on her door asking for help to retrieve her three other children inside their house.
Gemma said the gunmen forcibly entered their house and when Judy Ann went outside and talked to the gunmen to get her nephew and niece, they warned her that she would be shot if she approached.
She went back to her house where she heard two loud explosions. After a few minutes, she went out again to get her nephew and nieces and saw them outside.
An undetermined number of ordnance was found inside the victims' room on the second floor.
Barangay Villahermosa is more or less 20 kilometers away from the city proper or an hour's ride with no cellphone signal.