American consultant shot dead in Laguna

CALAMBA CITY — An American consultant for a real estate company was fatally shot by a security guard while inspecting a project in this Laguna city last Saturday afternoon, police said.

Christopher Paul Seliga, 41, manager of a golf course project for Ayala Greenfields Development Inc., was conducting a routine inspection of the project site in Barangay Puting Lupa here when he apparently had an argument with one of the security guards, said Senior Superintendent Alberto Garcia, city police chief.

The guard, identified as Emilio Robles, then shot Seliga with a caliber 5.56-mm. service firearm, Garcia said.

Robles, a son of the barangay chairman of Puting Lupa, is now being hunted down, he said.

Seliga, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a resident of Siniloan, Laguna, died on the spot.

Garcia said both men had been drinking.

"We are evaluating this as a work-related case," he said, ruling out speculations that communist rebels were behind the killing.

"This is a simple case of misunderstanding that went out of hand. Seliga confronted the guard over some matters that started the argument," Garcia told The STAR.

Police were still determining whether to file murder or homicide charges against Robles.

Seliga had been working on the project for a year. He was married to a Filipina who he met in Jordan. The couple had been living in a company-provided house near the project site.

Garcia quoted Seliga’s wife, Fe, as saying that her husband had been having a feud with some of his Filipino co-workers. — AP, Christina Mendez, Rene Alviar