Drive-by shooting hits Forbes

Even the genteel neighborhood of South Forbes Park is no longer immune to drive-by shooting, ¡que horror!

According to the hush-hush grapevine, a three-car convoy was caught on tape one recent evening just as the wall of the target house was hit by a burst of gunfire.

The wall was hit seven times, with the recovered slugs suggesting they were all fired from a 9mm Glock pistol.

Luckily for the investigators, the front neighbor happens to be a European ambassador, whose leased residence is ringed with CCTV cameras.

The would-be targets, a low-key billionaire family like many in the neighborhood, were able to identify the three cars after commissioning, ironically, not the police or the National Bureau of Investigation but their own trusted private investigators.

The chief suspect, sadly, turned out to be a cousin who is known within the family to be afflicted with some behavioral issues despite his high-flying business-high society image.

The suspect was thought to already be on the mend since he was over a decade ago been giving away copies of Paulo Coelho’s book on conversion, “The Alchemist,” among his friends and colleagues.

It appears now that the lingering family feud that has been plaguing one branch of the clan has also spread and infected even the second generation.

What apparently triggered the suspect to go off the rails again was the recent death of his father, a retired senior European executive of a multinational conglomerate.

The father’s death has apparently spawned another inheritance feud, this time involving the cousins over inter-related property interests.

Now running into decades, the original feud has even embroiled the regulatory authorities, with no less than a former chief justice and his then beauty queen mistress having been sustained by the string of lucrative court cases from the troubled family during his prejudiciary years.

What is adding to the mystery is that one of the cars had a sticker issued to a real-estate partner of the primary suspect.

The partner is a most unlikely suspect, since he is deeply embedded with the La Salle and the corporate governance circles. More clues? The partner belongs to a prominent elite family whose name when spoken by no less than DU30 is followed by expletives and the now infamous presidential rage.

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