Homicide investigators inspect the house of Richard Seno were he was shot dead yesterday. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
A man pretending to be a transient looking for a room to rent out fatally shot an apartment owner yesterday morning in Cebu City.
Richard Seno, 50, was killed instantly after he was shot in the head. The gunman ran out of the house in barangay Sambag II where a motorcycle-riding accomplice was waiting and fled.
Seno is the son of labor leader Cecilio Seno, vice chairman of the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) and president of Vimcontu Broadcasting Corp. which runs radio station dyLA.
The killing followed the brazen attack on defense lawyer Noel Archival who was ambushed Tuesday afternoon in Dalaguete town in southern Cebu. Two of the lawyer’s aides were also killed while another was taken to a hospital in Cebu City.
Police said the family was clueless as to why Seno was killed.
“Never did I imagine that my brother will end up being shot,” Gerard Seno, the national executive vice president of ALU-TUCP, told Cebu Daily News. The victim is the youngest of five siblings.
Their 91-year-old labor leader told radio station dyLA he has no idea why his son was targeted.
“Blangko man sab ko. We are waiting for the outcome of the investigation by the police,” Cecilio Seno said.
According to one of the boarders in the Seno apartment, the assailant knocked on the apartment’s gate and inquired if there was still a vacant room that he could rent out. The boarder, whose identity is being withheld for security reasons, said ‘yes’ before going back into the house to call the victim.
Seno went out and spoke to the man before he let him in. As they were ascending the stairway leading to the second floor where the vacant room is, two shots rang out, the witness said.
The assailant immediately ran out and fled.
“Daring kaayo ang pagpusil,” said homicide investigator, PO3 Lou Pagara.
He said they will check if the closed-circuit television camera of a nearby establishment was able to capture footage of the suspects.
“We appeal to the police authorities to look into the circumstances why my brother, Richard, was shot and I understand, dunay possibility nga na-capture sa cctv camera ang motorcycle, I hope it can help”, Gerard Seno said. / Correspondents Chito O. Aragon, Jhunnex Napallacan, Fe Marie D. Dumaboc, Carine M. Asutilla