Taxi driver shot dead in QC

MANILA, Philippines - Police officers face a blank wall on the killing of a taxi driver inside his vehicle before dawn in Quezon City yesterday.

Investigators said the killing of Carlito Roncales, 54, could not have been a case of robbery since his earnings and belongings were intact when he was found.

Chief Inspector Benjamin Elenzano, head of the Homicide Investigation Section of the Quezon City Police District, said Roncales’ bloodied body was found in his cab with license plate TXL 457.

His cab, with its engine still running, was parked at the corner of 12th and Boni Serrano Avenues in Barangay Socorro.

A witness said he saw two men — one wearing a blue sando and the other wearing a white shirt — leaving the taxicab and walking toward Edsa.

The witness said he was in a bar when he heard gunshots outside at around 3 a.m. When he checked, he saw the cab outside and noticed the two men walking away.

Elenzano said Roncales sustained gunshot wounds in the back of his right ear and the right side of his body, and stab wounds in his right arm.

But investigators noted that Roncales’ money, wristwatch and cellular phone were still with him.

“At the moment, we can’t pinpoint the motive behind the killing and the identities of the suspects,” Elenzano said.

He theorized that the suspects, believed to be the cabbie’s passengers at that time, might have had an argument with the victim, prompting him to momentarily park the vehicle on the side of the road.

“As to what they were arguing about, we still don’t know,” he said.  – Reinir Padua