LINGAYEN— “We thought it was the end of the world, the end of our lives.”

This was how Evangeline Sevidal, master teacher II of the English Department of the Pangasinan National High School (PNHS), recounted how she and her 55 senior students felt when PO3 Domino Alipio ran inside their classroom after killing four persons and wounding three others.

In an interview with The PUNCH, Sevidal, already on her 26th year as teacher, said she was at the north building, room 14 when she heard bursts of gunfire, prompting her to shout to her students to lie on the floor.

A board was used by her students to block the door of their classroom, which had no lock, to prevent anyone from entering. But when three students who saw the gunman headed towards the building, they had to open the door to let the three in. Sevidal told them to get inside the room quickly and to be quiet and to close the door.

But within minutes, Alipio, armed with a carbine, a grenade and another handgun tucked in his waist, forced his way inside their classroom.

“We were all crying, shouting, lying with our face down while he removed a plastic material from his grenade and threatened to kill us all,” she recounted.

Alipio told her he had killed Linda Sison, a teacher at PNHS and his loan collector Jonalito Urayan and said went on a shooting rampage because the loan payments were not being remitted to him.

Sevidal remained calm although got more frightened and had goose bumps were all over her body when Alipio asked her how she was related to Sison.

“I thought I was going to die as I told him Linda is my co-teacher,” Sevidal said.

She pleaded with Alipio not to kill her and her students, adding she is a single parent and is still sending her children to school.

Alipio’s desperation became apparent when he told them he had no more ambition and would retire from service after five years. He said in a low voice that he has a child and he would be imprisoned for what he did.

“Lesson learned, do not fool anyone,” Alipio told them, referring to the victims’ failure to remit collections to him and proceeded to describe his lending business.

“He said the total amount of loan he had extended to his debtors, mostly teachers, totaled P50-million.” Sevidal recalled.

“I was to kill 10 more people. What should I do, kill more people or just surrender?” Alipio told them, to which the students pleaded him to stop killing.

When two of Sevidal’s students went hysterical, Sevidal asked some of the students to fetch water for the two, and Alipio also asked for a glass of water.

Apparently, drinking the water given him calmed him down because when Alipio saw responding policemen coming, he calmly surrendered and left the room with them.

But before leaving, Alipio assured one of the students that he didn’t intend to kill her or any of them since they didn’t owe him.

After Alipio had left, everyone scampered outside of the classroom Sevidal went to the hospital to accompany her two students who were suffering from anxiety attacks, having difficulty of breathing after losing consciousness for some time.

“We really thought we would already die because he (Alipio) was already suicidal,” Sevidal said.

Shortly after the incident, feelings of gratitude and relief were being posted by her students in their Facebook accounts, for their second chance in life. (Tita Roces)

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