Woman dies as off-duty guard smashes face with large stone

Trigger warning: Graphic violence

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A woman died instantly after an off-duty security guard hit her face with a large stone amid their heated altercation in an interior area in Barangay Poblacion in the upland Makilala town in Cotabato province at past noon on Friday.

Col. Gilbert Tuzon, Cotabato provincial police director, said the victim, Joy Labrado, died right at where she fell after Joel Buendia smashed her face with a stone, weighing about two kilos, with excessive force and ran away.

Buendia voluntarily turned himself in to the Makilala Municipal Police Station (MPS) when he learned that Labrado died from the injury she sustained from the attack.

It was villagers who first saw Labrado lying dead at one spot in a coconut farm in the secluded Sitio Sta. Cruz area in Barangay Poblacion, her face full of blood.

Buendia told reporters he resented having killed Labrado brutally over a minor misunderstanding that he refused to elaborate on. Barangay officials are certain that he and Labrado had a relationship.

Tuzon has directed the chief of the Makilala MPS to immediately file a case against Buendia for his offense.