INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
TAGUM CITY — An official of a local government-run college in Davao de Oro province was shot dead by a lone gunman in this city on Black Saturday.
Colleagues and students of Mark Aldhrin Daquio were shocked and saddened following his murder in Barangay Magugpo South past 9 a.m.
Daquio was the guidance counselor of Kolehiyo Ng Pantukan (KNP), a tertiary institution run by the municipality of Pantukan in Davao de Oro province.
Lt. Col. Edgardo Bernardo, acting Tagum City police chief, told Inquirer by phone the incident happened as the victim was meeting with a lesbian woman who was selling a motorcycle unit to him outside an eatery along Mabini Street at around 9:30 a.m.
The police official said the victim was browsing the papers of the motor vehicle he was planning to buy when a man walked up to him, pulled a handgun and shot him twice on the head before speeding off on a motorcycle.
Daquio died at the scene.
“The whole KNP community is shocked by this unfortunate event. Today marks the death of our KNP’s Guidance Counselor, Sir Mark Aldhrin Daquio…We are deeply saddened (by) this news. We lost a great teacher,” KNP’s official student publication The Voice posted on its Facebook page. “While we send our sincerest condolences, we will raise OUR VOICE FOR JUSTICE the Daquio family and Sir Mark deserve. We will continue to battle for the truth until it no longer haunts us. JUSTICE FOR SIR MARK ALDHRIN DAQUIO,” the statement read.
Bernardo said they are looking into the possibility the suspect had tailed Daquio from Pantukan even as he discounted robbery as the motive.
“Nothing was stolen from him,” the acting city police chief said.
He said the victim had known and communicated with the purported seller on social media a day before Saturday’s attack.
He said the woman works at the eatery where the school official was gunned down.
An investigation into the incident was now underway, said Bernardo.