Tragic lovers’ quarrel

A 40-year-old government employee committed suicide last Sunday but not after stabbing his live-in partner 20 times with a screwdriver in a lovers’ quarrel at a basement of a mall in Mandaluyong City.

The body of Martin de Guzman Jr., an employee of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) was found hanging at the back of the La Chenda restaurant located at the corner of Jupiter and P. Burgos streets in Makati City hours after he left for dead Arlene Tanedo at the basement of the StarMall shopping center at 5:20 p.m. The girl survived and is undergoing treatment at the Victor Ponciano Reyes Medical Center.

Mandaluyong police chief Superintendent Ericson Velasquez said De Guzman and Tanedo were engaged in a shouting match over a still unknown reasons.

At the height of the argument, De Guzman allegedly pulled out a screwdriver and repeatedly stabbed Tanedo, a marketing officer of the Banco Parañaque and resident of Herardo street in Sampaloc, Manila.

After Tanedo fell bleeding, a mall security guard pursued the suspect who managed to board Tanedo’s parked Toyota Altis(XKK-501) to escape. The guard, however, shot one of the tires of the vehicle.

Police sent a flash alarm for the vehicle and hours later the car was recovered in Makati.

Velasquez and his men rushed to the area and saw De Guzman’s body dangling from the iron grill of the restaurant’s window. A black leather belt was looped around his neck. – Non Alquitran