Binondo bank clerk shot dead

MANILA, Philippines - A bank employee was shot dead in front of his office in Binondo, Manila a few minutes before the bank opened for business yesterday.

Witnesses said accounting clerk Edwin Lao, 37, entered the bank along Sto. Cristo street at around 8:45 a.m. and was about to get something from inside his Toyota Fortuner when a man approached him from behind and shot him in the neck at pointblank range.

The gunman then joined an accomplice waiting for him a few meters away from the crime scene. The two men sped off toward Divisoria.

“I was waiting for a passenger when I heard a gunshot. There was a commotion in front of the bank so I rushed to the area and saw Sir Edwin lying on the ground and still breathing. They (bystanders) were just staring at him so I took a pedicab and brought him to the nearest hospital,” said a pedicab driver who refused to be identified.

Manila Police District (MPD) investigators said Lao was brought to the Mother and Childs Hospital but transferred to the Manila Metropolitan Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at around 11:23 a.m.

A bank employee confirmed that Lao, who also owned a small eatery a stone’s throw away from the bank, had already entered the bank and gone out to get some papers from his vehicle when he was attacked.

Another witness said Lao was clutching his gun when the shooting happened. Police and bank employees, however, would neither confirm nor deny whether Lao was indeed armed.

“We are still waiting for the final report of the investigation. However, this early we have ruled out robbery as a possible motive because nothing was taken from the victim,” Senior Police Officer 4 Alberto Mapilisan of MPD Station 11, said.