MikeLigalig.com

By Teofilo P. Garcia

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Oct. 22 (PNA)--Four people were killed when an ex-convict ran amuck in a public school west of this city, officials said Friday.

Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo, Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO) director, said the incident took place around 1:45 p.m. Friday at the elementary school of Barangay Talisayan, 26 kilometers west of this city.

The incident took place at the last day of the classes since the school is set to go on a one-week break starting Monday.

Killed were Cess Dorin Orpiano, 12, a Grade 6 pupil, Lorna Pulalon, a Grade 2 teacher, Ruben Flores, 64, a guardian and the suspect, Feli Mateo, 51.

Wounded were Ludivina Balilo and Joni Torres, a Grade 5 and Grade 6 school teachers, respectively, and Grade 6 school pupils Joshua Demco, 11, Maria Lyka Basing, 12, Princess Briones, 12, and Michaela Jacona, 12.

Chastine Flores, a cousin and classmate of Orpiano, said the suspect, armed with a foot-long knife entered the school campus and went directly to Room number 4 and suddenly stabbed “Ma’am Torres.”

“He was armed with a long knife with a scabbard. It was around one-foot long,” the younger Flores said.

“Nakakatakot siyang tingnan,” she added describing the suspect.

Flores said the Mateo stabbed his grandfather Ruben Flores after the latter tried to stop him from proceeding to another school building where he attacked the rest of the victims.

The suspect was killed by the villagers living near the school who came to the aid of the helpless school teachers and pupils, De Ocampo said.

De Ocampo said that Mateo was jailed in 1981 at the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm for the crime of rape and was released last 2008.

He said that Mateo has decided to work as a poultry caretaker of Leonito Navales in Barangay Talisayan after his release from prison instead of going home to his native place in Dumaguete.

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