Showbiz writer shot dead in QC

Police are hunting down a still unidentified armed man after he shot dead the other night a showbiz writer of the Pilipino Star Ngayon inside a passenger bus in Regalado Avenue, Quezon City.

Victim Robert Perez, showbiz writer and reported talent manager, sustained bullet wounds in the head and expired while receiving medical treatment at the Far Eastern University Hospital early yesterday morning.

The suspect, described as a burly man in his mid-twenties, was wearing a dark jacket with a hood on his head. He was armed with a caliber .45 pistol and escaped right after the shooting.

According to SPO1 Cresenciano Bajao, officer-on-case, the incident took place at about 9:20 p.m. along Regalado Avenue. Perez and his companion, Carmelo Magdia, who lives with the victim, were on their way home after shopping at SM Lagro.

They were on board a Lucky Seven Bus (PXN-904) when the assailant, also a passenger, stood up and approached Perez from behind.

Without saying a word, the gunman pulled out his firearm and fired two shots at the victim. Perez was hit in the temple, the bullet exiting through his neck and again in the left side of his face.

The suspect then ordered the driver to stop the bus. He immediately alighted from the vehicle and made his way through the crowd outside. The bus driver then rushed Perez to the hospital where he died at about 4 a.m.

Investigators said that they are now conducting follow-up operations to determine the suspect’s identity, whereabouts, and motive. Police have ruled out robbery.

Meanwhile, agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Northern Field Office arrested in Marikina City last Monday a Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company employee for allegedly defrauding the telecommunications firm and its subscribers of millions of pesos in telephone bills.

Superintendent Gene Ines Abrajano, CIDG-NFO chief, identified the suspect as Crizelda Ocampo, 37, a PLDT computer account representative, of 7 Lilac street, SSS Village, Marikina City.

Ocampo was apprehended by CIDG agents led by Chief Inspector Efren Dalumpines by virtue of two warrants of arrest issued by two courts, in Manila and Pasig. – Pete Laude