GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – Police started investigations into the shooting deaths of foreigners in two Mindanao cities this week.

The victims – a South Korean and an Israeli – were killed on separate occasions by gunmen on Thursday, March 31, and Saturday, April 2.

The killings showed an all too familiar pattern – the vigilante-style shootings were carried out by two gunmen who fled the crime scenes while riding in tandem on motorcycles.

Police said 45-year-old Korean Jung Ho-jang, who was into business process outsourcing, was shot and killed while driving a car in Polomolok town, South Cotabato, on Saturday morning.

The other victim, 66-year-old Israeli Reuven Baranovitch, was also shot and killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Barangay Nazareth, Cagayan de Oro City, on Thursday. 

Lieutenant Colonel Virlen Pamplona, officer-in-charge of the Polomolok police, said crime scene investigators found Jung slumped inside a Toyota Innova SUV. 

Pamplona said the Korean was rushed to a hospital, where physicians declared him dead on arrival. Jung died of gunshots to the head.

Lieutenant Redin Cuevas said his team found seven spent bullets from a 9mm pistol in Jung’s car, documents, and some cash.

In Cagayan de Oro, police were still facing a blank wall as they looked into the killing of Baranovitch on Thursday afternoon.

Baranovitch, who married a Filipina, had established a lending business in Cagayan de Oro.

Colonel Aaron Mandia, Cagayan de Oro police chief, said Baranovitch was attacked while he was outside his rented apartment at the corner of 11th and 20th streets in Nazareth shortly before 6 pm on Thursday.

Police said the triggerman pumped five bullets into the Israeli and then rushed to a waiting motorcycle driven by another man.

Witnesses told the police the gunman wore a seven-color military shirt.

Baranovitch, who had lived in Cagayan de Oro for years, had made many enemies in the city because of his lending business, many of whom he sued for estafa. Many of them also pressed countercharges against him.

Once, the Israeli even accused prosecutors of allegedly sitting on the complaints he filed.

Major Evan Viñas, the city police spokesperson, said investigators have yet to identify a suspect, although there were plenty of “persons of interest.” – Rappler.com

Rommel Rebollido is a Mindanao-based journalist and an awardee of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship, while Herbie Gomez is Rappler’s Mindanao bureau coordinator.