Lover's partner kills 'Casanova' in Ermita

MANILA, Philippines – A pedicab driver was slain as he was sleeping in his vehicle in Ermita, Manila at past midnight yesterday, allegedly by the husband of the woman he had sex with just before he fell asleep.

The body of Joel Lourdes Atano, 24, was discovered with a gaping head wound in his pedicab behind the Philippine Post Office building along the Muelle del Rio.

Witnesses said the suspect, identified only as “Steve,” saw the victim and his live-in partner making love in the pedicab, according to Chief Inspector Alberto Peco, who heads the homicide section of the Manila Police District.

The witnesses said Steve had been hearing rumors that his partner is only one of several women who go to Atano for sex each night.

After having sex with Steve’s partner, Atano fell asleep in the pedicab. Witnesses said Steve then hit Atano on the head with a concrete slab, and his partner threw it in the Pasig River as they fled the area. Peco said the victim died from a fractured skull. – Nestor Etolle