Businessman shot dead

CEBU, Philippines - Unidentified men shot and killed a Filipino-Chinese businessman yesterday morning in Barangay Capitol Site.

It was reportedly the third time armed men shot at Kenneth Teo, 39.

Teo sustained two gunshot wounds in the left shoulder and another one in the head after he was shot by an unidentified man who later escaped on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

The victim was manning his water-refilling station near his house in Don Mariano Cui St. around 10 a.m. yesterday when a man clad in a brown jacket, approached the store.

The victim opened the door and suddenly shot Teo thrice.

The man, who did not wear anything to conceal his face, then got on a black XRM motorcycle driven by a helmeted man waiting nearby and both sped off.

Janet, the wife of the victim, who was inside the house, rushed outside after hearing the gunshots and found the victim lying bloodied inside the water-refilling station.

Vicmon Mampon, the victim’s assistant, was refilling water inside the station when the shooting took place but he was not hit.

Janet and others rushed Teo to the Cebu Doctors Hospital. He died 4:13 p.m. yesterday.

Michael Robert Cabisas, 18, who owns a small eatery across the water-refilling station, told police that the assailant had a snack in his store shortly before shooting the victim.

“Pinaingon pa gani to siya nga ‘dakoa sa imong saging uy, makabusog man sad’,” he said. He also asked the man where he parked his motorcycle, to which the latter pointed somewhere in front of him.

It was when Cabisas turned to other customers when he heard the gunshots.

He rushed outside to see what happened and saw the same man riding pillion on a motorcycle leaving the area. He recognized the man’s brown jacket, pants and shoes.

He further described the assailant as having brown complexion, a pimply face and curly hair.

Policemen recovered a .38 cal. slug from the crime scene.

This was not the first attempt on the life of Teo, said SPO1 Jay Yballe, chief investigator of Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office.

An unidentified man also shot at but missed the victim last November 12. Yballe said the victim said he chose not to have the incident recorded in a police blotter, assuming that he was just mistaken for somebody else who was the actual target.

However, two men on a motorcycle shot and hit him in the buttocks barely a month later. Teo, who was working then as a dealer of dried fish, was in the Taboan Market, Barangay San Nicolas, to open his warehouse when the assailants opened fire.

Yballe said they believe the second shooting incident was meant as a warning, but yesterday’s attack was a murder attempt.

The investigator said the victim told him he had no idea why anyone would want him dead.

“Siya mismo wa siya kahibawo kinsa’y magpapusil niya,” Yballe said, though the police suspect the victim has more to tell them.

Richard Teo, the victim’s elder brother, also said the victim has no enemies and that he is a kind person. They also do not believe the attacks are business-related as the victim just recently took over their business. He also owns a laundry shop.

The Homicide Section has a cartographic sketch of the possible suspects behind the previous shooting incidents which they plan to show again to the victim for identification. – (FREEMAN)