MAPANDAN TOWN tense

MAPANDAN – The hired motorcycle-riding assassins struck again. This time the target was a school principal.

Gunned down and killed while aboard a moving tricycle in barangay Aserda here Wednesday afternoon was Tessie Morante, 57, school principal of the Golden Elementary School.

Morante, who sustained two gunshot wounds in the back and another in the right ear, was fired upon by the back rider of a motorcycle that followed her and another companion.

The gunman, including the person driving the motorcycle, wore crash helmets making it impossible for anyone to identify them, said Chief Inspector Leonardo Tamondong, chief of police of Mapandan.

Morante was seated in the inner-most part of the passenger seat beside Myra de la Peña, 27, a teacher of the Golden Elementary School, who was unscathed but was in state of shock after the incident.

Also spared was the driver of the tricycle, Victoriano Lopez, 37.

Mayor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim condemned the slaying and admitted that the school principal’s murder left the people of Mapandan tense and perturbed.

He said he could not imagine why a principal of Mrs. Morante’s stature was killed in a very violent manner as he called on the police and other investigating agencies to leave no stone unturned in the investigation of the case.

The mayor and police investigators are still in the dark as to the motive behind the killing of a school principal who was very much respected in the town.

The family of Mrs. Morante, mother of three, has already sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation to solve the slaying.

Lyn Morante, daughter of the principal, told investigators her mother had received an angry text message from a still unidentified person but she merely ignored it.

Then in the last few days, she said they saw a “taho” vendor frequently passing by their house who appeared to be monitoring movements in the house.

Phillip Lalas, elder brother of the victim, said he knew her sister had no enemies but she was a disciplinarian and may have incurred the ire of some people.

But he conceded that this may be a shallow reason why she had to be killed.

The killing of Morante fanned another tension in Mapandan even as the killing of Vice Mayor Adolfo Aquino by a still unidentified assassin remains unsolved.

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