Man shot dead under nipa hut in Balamban

Body of a man found with a gunshot wound was found under a nipa hut in Sitio Pili Barangay Prenza, Balamban town, Cebu, this morning, November 15, 2019. | CONTRIBUTED Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Residents in Sitio Pili, Barangay Prenza, Balamban town, Cebu were horrified when they found the body of their neighbor lying in a pool of his blood under a nipa hut in the area at around 6 a.m. today, Friday, November 15, 2019.

The victim, who was identified as 36-year-old, Benjie Tagalog Labastida, suffered a gunshot wound at the back of his head.

Police Major Christian Torres, chief of Balamban police, told CDN Digital that the residents in the area heard three shots fired at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 14.

However, the residents were unable to go outside to verify if it was a shooting incident, until one of the residents who passed by the area this morning found the body.

According to Torres, the victim’s mother, Cora Labastida, last saw her son at around 8 p.m. on Thursday along the road of their sitio, near the nipa hut where he was found and he was then talking to a man on a motorcycle.

Cora told police that when she approached her son the man with her son immediately left.

Torres said that Labastida had a pending case for rape that was filed last October.

He said that they were checking this angle as a possible motive for the killing of Labastida.

He said they were also verifying reports about the victim’s alleged involvement in selling unregistered firearms.

For now, they were focusing on finding witnesses, who might saw the shooting incident or who could identify the assailant./dbs