ANGELES CITY, Philippines – Efforts of local officials to promote the city as “Friendship City” in a bid to erase its reputation as “Sin City” is dampened by the continued killings of foreign tourists.
The latest victim was a Malaysian tourist, Selvaraj Palaniappen, 54, who was gunned down by two men last Thursday morning.
Other foreign tourists, including Americans, Australians and Germans, have been killed in this city since 2007, and all the cases have remained unsolved.
Senior Superintendent Pierre Bucsit, city police chief, said Palaniappen was on his way back to Medgar Hotel in Barangay Malabanias when two men on a motorcycle held him up and shot him when he resisted.
Last March, American tourist Jerry Melton, 51, was gunned down in Barangay Malabanias just two days after he had arrived in the country. – Ding Cervantes and Ric Sapnu