Shot dead over an electric bill

An argument over how to divide an electric bill payment led to a fatal shooting of a neighbor in Tondo, Manila Thursday night.

According to the police, Danilo Bation, 30, and his next-door neighbor, Joseph Malvas, 22, had an agreement that they would both foot the electric bill.

But last Thursday night, however, they had a bitter quarrel over how much each should pay because both claimed that they used less electricity.

Cooler heads prevented the two from coming to blows and Bation and Malvas agreed to settle their argument before barangay officials.

However on Thursday, Bation went to Malvas’ house and the two again argued over the electric bill. Bation’s wife told police later that she heard two successive gunshots from Malvas’ house, prompting her to run to the scene.

She saw Malvas walking out of the house with a gun in his hand and her husband sprawled on the floor, bloodied. Neighbors helped her bring her husband to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Hospital but he died along the way from a single gunshot wound in the back. – Nestor Etolle