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Thursday, December 16, 2004
Suspected vigilantes kill 94th victim
By Joy G. Romares
DAVAO CITY -- A utility driver of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Company became the 94th victim this year in the series of unsolved killings in the city.
Almario Sy was shot dead by unidentified persons believed to be vigilantes outside a machine shop along J.P. Cabaguio Avenue Wednesday morning.
Sy was checking the engine of his service car, together with helper Joemer Layar, 23, outside the Davao All Car Care Corporation around 10:15 p.m. when an unidentified man appeared and without provocation shot him thrice in the head.
He died instantly.
Layar, who was beside Sy, sustained a minor wound in the right forehead after being hit by what could have been a shell.
A female witness, who refused to be identified, said she saw the suspect.
He was wearing a white shirt, light colored shorts, and a red bullcap.
He ran towards a red Honda motorcycle, which had no plate number and was waiting along the roadside with two men onboard.
"I heard three gunshots after which the suspect immediately boarded a motorcycle that already had two men on it. The two other suspects were wearing what looked like black jackets. The triggerman even found it hard to hop on since he was on the short side and seemed to be on the verge of panic since people have already started to get a closer look," the witness told Sun.Star Davao.
Elsa Manseras, manager of the machine shop, said she doesn't know anything about the victim.
"I only knew his name because he often came here to have his vehicle serviced," Manseras told Sun.Star Davao.
Scene of the Crime Operation (Soco) agents recovered two empty shells of a .9mm handgun and an empty shell of a .45 pistol.
Layar said he did not notice whether the suspect was carrying two handguns.
"I wasn't looking, I had my head down because I was fixing the battery of the vehicle. The suspect to immediately ran away right after he shot the victim," Layar said.
Police also recovered the victim's cellphone and a small sachet of white crystalline substances believed to be shabu near the head of the victim.
But they refuse to immediately tag the incident as drug-related saying the sachet could have been planted because of the position in which it was found.
Sy was married but was separated from his wife.
(December 16, 2004 issue)
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