ILOILO City – One of the five bullets that hit Barangay Captain Remia Prevendido Gregori of Bakhaw, Mandurriao district was a special bullet designed to inflict maximum tissue damage and blood loss or shock.
According to Dr. Owen Lebaquin of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), Gregori’s internal organs including lungs, liver and intestines, were damaged.
Lebaquin autopsied Gregori. The autopsy report stated that one of the bullets that hit the sister of slain drug lord Richard Prevendido was a hollow-point bullet compatible to a .45 pistol.
A hollow-point bullet is an expanding bullet that has a pit or hollowed-out shape in its tip often intended to cause the bullet to expand upon entering a target as it penetrates and disrupts more tissue.
Gregori was hit on the chest and right arm.
“Based on the autopsy, it was clear the gunmen really wanted to silence Gregori,”said Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, Iloilo police director.
When a hollow-point hunting bullet strikes a soft target, the pressure created in the pit forces the material (usually lead) around the inside edge to expand outwards, increasing the axial diameter of the projectile as it passes through. This process is commonly referred to as “mushrooming” because the resulting shape, a widened, rounded nose on top of a cylindrical base, typically resembles a mushroom.
The greater frontal surface area of the expanded bullet limits its depth of penetration into the target, and causes more extensive tissue damage along the wound path.
Seven armed men shot Gregori at her beach resort in Barangay Igcadlum, San Joaquin, Iloilo on June 24. Tayaba said the killing was drug-related.
As of this writing, the police remained clueless on the identities of the assassins, said Tayaba.
Gregori took over her brother’s illegal drug business after Prevendido was killed in a shootout with policemen in Barangay Balabago, Jaro district on Sept. 1, 2017, said Tayaba.
“Siguro may naiwan na utang sa drugs si Richard (Prevendido) at may mga atraso sa ibang drug personalities or business rivalry kaya siya (Gregori) ay pinatay,” added Tayaba, one of the police officers who led the operation that neutralized Prevendido.
Gregori surrendered to the Mandurriao district police station on Sept. 18 last year but she denied involvement in illegal drugs.
The police and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency classified Gregori and Prevendido as high-value targets./PN
