Assassinated in a hospital

A murder "copied from a cloak-and-dagger movie scene."

This was how Manila Police District (MPD) investigators described the killing of a taxi driver who survived a gunshot wound but was murdered by an assassin right inside a private hospital ward where he was recuperating.

Police believe taxi driver Rommel Francisco was murdered by a killer who sneaked in posing as a doctor or nurse or a hospital worker. He was stabbed while his wife Rochelle was with him in the hospital room asleep. Frantic doctors tried but failed to save Francisco.

Last Dec. 10 Francisco, of Gagalangin, Tondo, was shot in the left ear by one of three passengers he was ferrying along Vito Cruz street in Malate.

Francisco survived the attack and was brought to Metropolitan Hospital in Tondo, Manila. His wife watched over him in the hospital ward.

But on the early morning of Wednesday, according to the police, Rochelle said she was awakened by the moaning of her husband and was shocked to find her husband bleeding from a stab wound in the neck.

Chief Inspector Alejandro Yanquiling Jr., head of the MPD homicide section, said the stab wound was caused by a sharp object.

Police, however, were puzzled how the killer managed to gain entry into the hospital straight to Room 529, where Francisco was recuperating.

Hospital guards and personnel said they did not notice anybody entering or leaving the hospital acting suspiciously at the time the victim was killed. They could not even explain the apparent lapse in security.

A veteran investigator said the killer could had disguised himself as a nurse, a doctor or even a hospital hand in order to roam inside the hospital at the wee hours of the morning without attracting attention. He said such style of killing was copied from several movie and television scenes.

Investigators are also wondering how Francisco was killed considering that his wife was occupying a separate bed inside the hospital room.

Police are currently hunting down the three men in the shooting. They were only identified by their aliases — Baluto, Jessie and Ongkit. Police suspect one of them could also be the hospital killer.

Yanquiling said he is also looking into the possible liability of the hospital management for the killing. "The hospital is a private one wherein there is only an specific time for visitors," he said.

"Any or all of the three suspects could had planned to finish off the victim at his hospital bed to escape prosecution," said another MPD investigator.