Murdered taho vendor identified; family seeks justice, appeals for witnesses’ help

The body of a taho (soy pudding) vendor lies on the pavement after he was gunned down in broad daylight in Barangay Cogon-Pardo, Cebu City by still unidentified perpetrators on February 13, 2020.| CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — “He was just a taho vendor who wanted to support the dreams of his brother.”

This was how a distraught Charie Santa Maria, 43, described her nephew Peejay Mabaga, 27, the taho vendor who was shot dead in Barangay Cogon Pardo on Thursday, February 13, 2020.

Santa Maria said this as she appealed for witnesses to come forward and help them get justice for the brutal death of Mabaga.

At the time of his death, Mabaga was then an unidentified shooting victim.

But when Mabaga’s taho supplier learned about the killing of an unidentified taho vendor, he visited the Pardo Police Station on February 14 and identified the body to that of Mabaga.

The taho supplier was also the one who informed the family about Mabaga’s death, who rushed to the Saint Francis Funeral Homes to verify the identity of the dead taho vendor.

Read more: Taho vendor gunned down in Cogon-Pardo

Police Senior Master Sergeant Julito Elarcosa, investigator of the case, told CDN Digital initial investigation showed that it would seem that Mabaga was mistaken for a police asset, which could be fatal in the area, whom Elarcosa described as a place allegedly known as a “hideout for criminals.”

Santa Maria told CDN Digital in an interview described his late nephew.

“Kind. Hard working. Shy… he was doing a decent job, he did not deserve it,” said Santa Maria in Cebuano about his nephew’s fate.

She said that her nephew had no record in the police and had not been in any conflict with anyone since he arrived in Cebu two years ago from Manila.

Mabaga was originally from Santa Ana, Manila and he moved to Cebu to find a better future.

Santa Maria said that Mabaga at first worked in her small stall in the Barangay Mantuyong market in Mandaue City.

He later decided to work as a taho vendor to earn more income to support his younger brother, Perry, who was a second year engineering student in Cebu Technological University.

Amid sobs of sorrow, Santa Maria wished that Mabaga would be given justice for his death.

And this could justice would be achieved if a witness would come forward and help them identify the suspect.

And so she again made her appeal for witnesses to help them.

Elarcosa, for his part, also encouraged witnesses or even residents in the area to tell them, the police, about any information about the killer, who was seen during the shooting to have been wearing a red shirt./dbs