Chinese traders offer reward for rob-slay suspect

MANILA, Philippines - The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) is offering P20,000 for the arrest of the suspected killer of a Chinese restaurant owner, the Manila Police District (MPD) said yesterday.

Xu Hanwei, 21, whose family owns the Hap Ka Bee restaurant along Benavidez street in Binondo, was stabbed dead at the second floor of the restaurant July 6.

The cash box was open and the day’s earnings – at least P13,000 – was missing, according to police.   

Inspector Armando Macaraeg, who heads the MPD’s homicide section, said former employee George Gardose, 24, was caught by a closed-circuit television camera before and after the crime.

Gardose was reportedly dismissed from his work two weeks prior to the crime when he was discovered to be padding the amount of delivery receipts issued to the restaurant’s customers. Since then, Gardose was banned from the restaurant premises.

Footage from the CCTV camera installed at a nearby building showed Gardose, wearing the restaurant’s red shirt, walking back and forth in the area at past 2 a.m. Minutes later, he was again seen, this time wearing a white shirt, jumping from the second floor window of the restaurant. He was also observed washing his hands in a puddle of water on the street, according to Macaraeg.

 “There were reports that he had fled to his home province in Iloilo. The reward could help facilitate his immediate arrest,” Macaraeg said.

The MPD has also filed charges of robbery with homicide, a non-bailable offense, against the suspect.

The Hanwei family arrived in the country two years ago and put up a restaurant business this year, Macaraeg said.