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Sunday, February 22, 2004
Taxi driver shot, killed in third attack on city cabbies this week
By Minerva B. Gerodias
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
JUST 12 hours after a driver was found dead inside his taxi in Barangay Apas, a similar attack occurred in Barangay Sapangdaku, Cebu City yesterday dawn.
Artemio Delante, 41, was found dead in the driver’s seat of a Road Runner taxi (GVP-960). He bore a gunshot wound in his back.
Delante’s death is the third this week involving taxi drivers. The first one was reported in Barangay Guizo, Mandaue City.
Supt. Pablo Labra II, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Bureau chief, and SPO1 Alex Dacua, a homicide investigator, said they are considering the robbery angle but are not ruling out a grudge.
This, after the police received a report that a jeepney driver fought with Delante two weeks ago on suspicion that Delante was having an affair with the jeepney driver’s wife.
The Road Runner taxi was parked in the middle of the road in Sitio Arcos, Sapangdaku. When residents checked it, they found Delante bloodied inside, prompting them to call the police.
No wallet
Motorcycle-for-hire drivers reportedly saw Delante’s car pass by J. Labra St. yesterday dawn with three suspicious-looking passengers.
The police could not find Delante’s wallet and earnings, raising the robbery angle.
His body was brought to Barangay Liba-ong, San Remigio, his hometown.
Labra said the culprits were familiar with the place because they brought Delante to a secluded area.
The police is also checking on four personalities who may be involved in the crime. Labra said three of these men were recently released from the Cebu City jail.
Labra further said they could not establish links yet with the two previous taxi heists, because the descriptions of the robbers differ.
Cebu City Police Office Chief Cecil Ezra Sandalo ordered Labra to give special attention to these recent taxi robberies.
Last Tuesday, cab driver Efren Gencianos, 30, died from a bullet wound in the head inside a Sunlight taxi (GVR 939) in Guizo, Mandaue City.
Three days later, around 4 p.m., driver-operator Dioceño Sang-an, 33, was also found dead in his taxi with gunshot wounds in the right leg and chest in Barangay Apas.
Sang-an was in the front passenger seat, which made the police believe that he was killed somewhere and abandoned in Apas.
(February 22, 2004 issue)
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