Tudela employee shot dead by friend

CEBU, Philippines - A job order employee of Tudela town in Camotes Island was shot to death by his companion evening last Thursday at the public market in front of the municipal hall in barangay Southern.

Nonil Lactuman, 19, a resident of barangay General, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Ricardo Manigo Memorial Hospital after sustaining major wounds.

 Reports had it that the suspect, Jonel Beltran, 24, is a close-in body guard of the mayor’s son, but Tudela police chief Insp. Wilfredo Giducos denied the same. In an interview with dySS, Giducos said politics seems to have nothing to do with the killing and personal grudge appears to be the most probable motive.

Beltran, a native of Dalaguete town, is currently detained at the Tudela Police Station pending the filing of appropriate charges against him.

 Giducos said that the victim and suspect were in a drinking spree with their friends at a store in the public market when a heated argument ensued. Beltran reportedly left, but just as the group thought he was avoiding a possible fight, the suspect returned a few minutes later and, without provocation, shot Lactuman several times using a .357 revolver.

Beltran reportedly threw his gun and tried to ran, but he was eventually accosted by responding policemen.

Police also recovered the firearm Beltran used in the shooting by the road near the crime scene. The gun still bore three live ammunition and three empty shells. — Gabriel C. Bonjoc and Mellanie Joy C. Rosales, CNU Intern/JMO (FREEMAN NEWS)