A FORMER administrative officer of Quezon City and a city hall employee were gunned down along with a lawyer from Commission on Audit at the height of heavy downpour Sunday night in Quezon City.
Police identified the victims as Edwin Tating, 53, former head of the city hall’s Administrative Management Office who is now on a floating status and acting consultant of Mayor Herbert Bautista, residing at San Roque Street, Barangay Holy Spirit and Napoleon Aquino, a city employee also of the same barangay.
The slain lawyer was identified as Atty.Rizal Cimatu, 53, of COA legal department, of 62 Sto. Domingo Street, Barangay Holy Spirit.
The victims were having a drinking session at Jambinga bar at the Sto. Domingo and San Simon Streets in Barangay Holy Spirit, when armed men riding tandem in two motorcycles suddenly appeared and peppered them with bullets from still unknown caliber.
The victims died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds; two bystanders grazed by stray bullets were identified as Samantha Bibon, 17, of St. Vincent Street and Esmeraldo Castillo, 53, of No.19 Sto. Domingo Street, brgy. Holy Spirit.
Investigators from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU) are still facing a blank wall on who carried ou the ambush and the motive behind the killing.
Chief Insp. Rodel Marcelo, QCPD-CIDU chief said his men are still conducting a follow-up operation to determine the identities of the suspects.
Marcelo said Aquino even managed to trade shots with the suspects but was overpowered by the heavy firearms of the assassins who fled right after seeing their victims lying bloodied on the grounds.
He added that they are eyeing a work-related angle as Cimatu might have handled critical cases at the COA.
