Taxi driver, buddy shot dead in Talisay

CEBU, Philippines - A taxi driver and a friend were killed while another friend was injured after being shot at by three men on a motorcycle at past 1 a.m. yesterday in San Isidro, Talisay City.

Police identified the first victim as Eduardo Malaay Bantilan Jr., 29, driver of Juscar Taxi (GXC 775) and a resident of Artville Subdivision in San Isidro. Police who responded to the scene brought Bantilan and his injured friend Rey Delantar, 30, of barangay Lipata, Minglanilla town, to the nearby Talisay District Hospital, but on their way Bantilan whispers to the lawmen that his other friend, Ralf Steven Manako, 24, of San Isidro, was also shot.

SPO1 Mikie Espina, case investigator, said it was raining hard and was still dark when they first got to the crime scene.

At 5:35A.M., Talisay City Police Station’s homicide section, who went back to the crime scene, found Manako slumped to the ground already dead.

He succumbed to a single gunshot wound at the back of his body.

Espina said Bantilan was hit in the chest. He was later declared dead by doctors at the hospital.   

Delantar sustained a gunshot wound on the right side of the body.

As of press time, he was being treated at the government-run Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

As of yesterday, Espina said they already have the cartographic sketches of the three suspects, but have yet to get the identity of at least one of them.

“We’re still getting information as to the identity of at least one of the three suspects. Then it will be easier for us to get the rest,” Espina said in an interview.

The investigator said that based on the testimony of an eyewitness, the taxi driver and two other men were drinking in a corner of their village when a motorcycle with three unidentified men on it arrived, and one of them fired at them at point blank.

The men then sped off.

Police found one deformed slug, one bullet, and one empty shell of a .9mm caliber pistol, presumably the gun used in the crime, Espina said.

Espina said the police are looking into the “feeling of resentment” and “paregla,” or spur-of-the-moment assault angles as the motive.