Dying ambush victim names gunman

MAGSINGAL, Ilocos Sur — Before she drew her last breath, a wounded teacher told police who shot her and her husband in a brazen daylight ambush that left their nine-year-old daughter orphaned.

Police said Mary Rose Tabag Torreno, who was rushed to Gabriela Silang Hospital after the attack, identified one of the gunmen as a certain “Alias Ambang.” She died on Sunday afternoon from multiple gunshot wounds.

Her husband, 33-year-old tricycle driver Maynard Unciano Torreno, was declared dead on arrival at the Ilocos Sur District Hospital shortly after the shooting on Saturday morning.

The couple and their young daughter were riding their black Honda TMX tricycle along a barangay road in Patong, Magsingal, around 8:40 a.m. when armed men wearing bonnets emerged from the side of the road and opened fire.

Miraculously, their daughter, a Grade 4 pupil, was unharmed.

Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered 10 fired cartridges from an armalite rifle, eight from a .45 caliber pistol and the victims’ tricycle at the scene.

Police are pursuing the suspects, who fled after the shooting. “We are still investigating the incident and conducting a hot pursuit against them,” said Magsingal police chief Lt. Richard Pajo.