Barangay chair shoots dead erstwhile pal

True to his name, a barangay chair allegedly shot to death early yesterday his erstwhile trusted man and wounded two other persons, including an octogenarian woman, in an argument over disrespecting the elderly in Manila.

Erwin Catacutan, 40, chair of Barangay 62 Zone 6, of Franco Street in Tondo, is now the subject of a manhunt by the Manila Police District (MPD) after he fled after allegedly gunning down an avid supporter and seriously wounded two of his other constituents.

The victim, Ramil Bautista, 39, of 515-A Mejorada Street in Tondo, was declared dead on arrival by attending doctors at the Mary Johnston Hospital from nine bullet wounds in the head and body.

Bautista’s 81-year-old neighbor Marcela Rincoraya, who was hit by a stray bullet on the chest while she was sleeping inside her home, remains under observation at the same hospital. Her relative Ephraim Mendoza, who was inside the same house, sustained a bullet wound on the left arm.

SPO2 Virgo Villareal, of the MPD homicide section, revealed that the incident happened at around 1 a.m., yesterday, in front of Bautista’s house.

Villareal said that several days before the incident, Bautista had called Catacutan’s elderly father a pest during an argument over the keys to the barangay chairman’s house.

The old man, Villareal pointed out, apparently told his son about what Bautista had said prompting the barangay chairman to confront yesterday his father’s offender.

Catacutan confronted Bautista outside the latter’s house and the two men had a heated exchange where Bautista allegedly expressed his regret for campaigning for and supporting the barangay official.

This irked Catacutan who allegedly drew a .45 caliber pistol from his waist and started firing at Bautista. The barangay official fled when the victim fell bloodied on the ground. Some of the bullets that missed Bautista, however, pierced through a neighboring house’s wall and hit the two other  victims.

Neighbors rushed Bautista and the other victims to the nearest hospital but the effort to save him proved futile. His body was brought to the Amurao funeral parlor for autopsy and safekeeping.

Villareal said Mendoza has been discharged from the hospital after treatment.

Operatives of the MPD homicide section have fanned out to search for and arrest Catacutan.