Drunken village head kills colleague

A barangay (village) chair shot dead a colleague during a monthly zone meeting of barangay leaders in Zone 478, Manila.

Police are now looking for Barangay 480 chair Jonathan Florendo, 50, over the killing of Barangay 473 chair Hilario Romano.

The 55-year-old Romano was shot dead at 9:15 p.m. on Saturday in the
barangay hall of Barangay 478 on Maria Cristina Street in Sampaloc, Manila, according to Police Officer 3 Crispino Ocampo of the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section.

The chair of Barangay 478, Ruben Peña, told the police that the suspect, who was obviously drunk, walked into the meeting with a beer bottle in one hand and a 9 mm firearm hidden somewhere on his person.

At one point, he and the victim, who was in favor of the deployment of watchmen to a nearby high school for security, argued.

When the victim told the suspect not to help out if he did not want to, the
latter was irked and pulled out his gun. Other barangay leaders, however, intervened and Peña took the gun from the suspect, telling him he would return it once he was sober.

Unfortunately for the victim, the suspect walked out, called up his son and told him to bring his other gun to the barangay hall.

He then shot the victim in the chest, killing him on the spot before escaping, MPD homicide chief Senior Inspector Joselito de Ocampo told the Inquirer.

Analyn Buan, head of the Manila Barangay Bureau, said she was shocked and saddened by the “waste of two lives.”

She surmised that the argument was caused by a clash of personalities. “The victim was my friend. He was noisy, cheerful and a kidder. [I wasn’t close to] the suspect but he was a quiet one,” she said.

She added that the other chairmen told her that the victim had also told off the suspect for coming to the meeting drunk. “He was probably irked,” she noted, referring to the suspect.