DAYS before he was killed in front of his sixth grade class, public school teacher Romeo Duran, 52, acted more fearful, police learned.
Acting Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Erson Digal said that two teenagers who were living with Duran in his rented house in Barangay Binlod, Argao observed this when he would return home and immediately lock the doors and put chairs under the doorknobs.
Asked why he did this, he reportedly explained it was just a precaution.
The fatal shooting has also prompted a Cebu City legislator to ask the Department of Education (DepEd) to adopt measures to secure all points of entry and exit in every school.
Councilor Edgardo Labella said the attack has raised the concern on strangers having easy access to school premises.
Police are trying to determine if Duran had overdue debts and if this was a motive for the killing.
Duran was shot dead inside a classroom of the Binlod Elementary School while he was conducting a review for his students.
The pupils had just greeted a man “Good afternoon, visitor” when the man pulled out a gun and shot Duran.
Digal said they now have two cartographic sketches made. There were four persons who carried out the murder.
The local government of Argao has sent social workers to plot a schedule for counseling of all 328 pupils of the Binlod Elementary School and for their parents and teachers, who were also shaken by the attack and fearful the gunman would return.
Duran was leading his class in checking test papers shortly after an exam when the gunman came around 3 p.m.
“The incident…may be a precedent for some lawless elements to initiate varied illegal activities in school vicinities or even within school premises,” Labella said.
Snatching, theft and other illegal activities occur in schools where the security personnel are not seen by the public, he pointed out.
Labella was concerned because “Cebu City, one of the biggest educational centers in the Visayas and Mindanao, has a total student population of around 100,000.”
Securing all exits and entrances to schools, he said, will help insulate the students from lawless elements.
He also asked the Cebu City Police Office to increase visibility in school areas, “so as to discourage lawless elements from turning school areas into ‘crime zones’ at the expense of the safety and psychological well-being of the public, particularly schoolchildren.”