Ex-OFW slain after winning case vs former employer

MANILA, Philippines - A former overseas Filipino worker was gunned down in Barangay Vasra, Quezon City yesterday afternoon after he won a labor case he filed against his former employer.

Christopher Timbreza, 41, was carrying P450,000 – representing the compensation he received as a result of the case – when he was shot in the nape by a still unidentified assailant, according to initial reports from the Quezon City Police District.

It was Timbreza’s second time to receive compensation from a labor case, the reports said.

Timbreza; his friend, former ship captain Anthony Ogbinar, 38; and his 14-year-old daughter were about to get into a car when he was shot.

The assailant tried to grab the money, which was in a bag held by Timbreza’s daughter, but failed.

Investigators are eyeing the labor case and the money as among the motives for the attack.

Timbreza’s widow, Marylou, said her husband filed a labor case against Batangueño Human Resources Inc. in 2013.

She said her husband received the P450,000 from the National Labor Relations Commission in Quezon City, and 25 percent of it was supposed to be given to Anthony Ogbinar, the executive director of the International Seafarer Action Center, who assisted the victim in the labor case.