Barangay chair killed in Quiapo home

The job had the mark of a professional: The triggerman only needed to see the target through the window of the victim’s sari-sari store and even had a sack ready for the spent bullet casings.

A barangay chair was shot dead in front of his wife inside their home in Manila’s Quiapo district on Thursday night. Witnesses saw at least two suspects who fled on a motorcycle and left practically nothing for investigators to work on at the crime scene.

Homicide investigators are looking into the victim’s political or business dealings as a possible motive behind what they described as a professional hit on Sainal Sharief, 56, chair of Barangay 384 Zone 39.

The incident drew condemnation from Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, who went to the Islamic Center in Quiapo Friday for Sharief’s funeral rites. The mayor appealed for more witnesses to surface and help the police get the killers.

The village chair was shot at around 8:30 p.m. while he and and his wife were watching TV at their residence at the corner of Globo de Oro and Bautista streets.

Witnesses told the police that they noticed two men on a motorcycle in front of the barangay chair’s house, which had a sari-sari store, prior to the attack.

One of the men later got off the bike with one hand hidden in a sack, holding the gun. He then fired at Sharief through the store’s window without taking the sack off his shooting hand, they said.

In an interview with the Inquirer, case investigator PO3 Alonzo Layugan said the shooter apparently made sure he would not leave any evidence behind by using the sack “to catch the empty casings expelled by his handgun.”

“The Soco (Scene of the Crime Office) team arrived but not one piece of evidence was recovered at the scene,” Layugan said

Sharief was shot thrice in the head and body.

“We learned that (Sharief) was engaged in the money changer business at his home. He may have had rivals in his business,” Layugan said. “The local elections are still a year away but we also have to look into that.”