Baguio anti-illegal vending exec shot

BAGUIO CITY — The head of the city’s anti-illegal peddling task force was shot and wounded by an unidentified man while checking the presence of illegal vendors along Session Road last Tuesday afternoon.

The victim, George Andawi, 39, task force head of the city’s public order and safety division under the mayor’s office, was shot in the abdomen with a caliber .45 pistol. He was declared out of danger, said his superior, Emmanuel Reyes.

Reports said Andawi was checking illegal vendors at the foot of Session Road, the city’s main thoroughfare, when he was attacked.

Andawi’s men standing a few meters away tried to come to his rescue but the gunman pointed his gun at them. Reyes said the attacker tried to fire twice but the trigger jammed.

Perbelito Soriano, a colleague of Andawi, said the latter grabbed the gun, apparently hoping that someone would help him, when a vendor sprang out from his stall and kicked Andawi to free the gunman.

The vendor was arrested and detained. But Reyes said he was not the gunman.

Reyes said the attack on Andawi was apparently planned, noting that the gunman threw his arm around the victim’s shoulder before shooting him.

Last March, one of Andawi’s men was stabbed by angry vendors.

Just after the attack on Andawi, Soriano said he got a call from an unknown cellular phone number, warning him that he would be the next target.

Police already have an artist’s sketch of Andawi’s attacker.

Andawi is the second official involved in the campaign against illegal vending attacked since 2004.

That year, engineer Nazita Banez, then the head of the city’s demolition division which also went after illegal vendors, was ambushed as she stepped out of the University of Baguio where she was studying law. She survived the attack.