Kin of WV top 1 most wanted gunned down

Police cordon the area in Barangay Efegenio Lizares, Talisay City, Negros Occidental where a barangay watchman was gunned down by unidentified perpetrators on a motorcycle Friday. (Photo courtesy of Talisay City Police Station)

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Police are probing if the death of a barangay watchman in Talisay City, Negros Occidental last week could be linked to the crime allegedly committed by his nephew, who is the top 1 most wanted person in Western Visayas.

Police Captain Abegael Donasco, deputy chief of Talisay City Police Station, said that Dennis Tribaco, 49, of Barangay Zone 10, was gunned down by unidentified perpetrators on a motorcycle in Barangay Efegenio Lizares on May 19.

Tribaco was driving a tricycle, along with his wife, on their way to the Bacolod-Silay Airport in Silay City to fetch their daughter when the perpetrators allegedly tailed them and shot the victim in the forehead.

Tribaco was declared dead in a hospital.

Donasco said that Dennis is the uncle of 26-year-old Ivan Tribaco who was arrested on May 12 after he was allegedly tagged in the killing of a mother and her two sons in Barangay Matab-ang in March this year.

Donasco said that Ivan was identified by the eight-year-old victim before he passed away in a hospital.

Ivan is also the eighth most wanted person at the provincial level, and sixth at the city level, according to the police.

Donasco said that police have yet to establish the motive in the March incident, adding that the Tribacos and the victims had no connection with each other.

She said that at least two suspects are not accounted for in the March incident.