MetroBriefs

Taxi driver killed inside restaurant

A gunman wearing a bonnet shot and killed a taxi driver in a small restaurant in Quezon City on Saturday evening. Senior Police Officer 2 Christopher Ronquillo of the Quezon City Police District identified the victim as Andres Mendoza, a driver of Johdyan Taxi and a resident of Bulacan province. Ronquillo said the killing could be due to a work-related dispute. A police report said the victim was seated by himself inside Joy Billiards and Restaurant near the corner of Anonas Road and Aurora Boulevard when a man wearing a bonnet came in and shot him at around 9 p.m. on Saturday. The victim was hit in the nape and died on the spot. The police said the victim had just come from the company garage not too far away from the restaurant when he went inside the restaurant and was shot.—Nancy C. Carvajal

Makati collects P.6M from litterbugs

Eight out of every 10 litterbugs who were apprehended in Makati City for the first six months of this year were not residents of the country’s financial capital, data from the local government’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) showed. The number of tickets handed out by the local government increased by 20 percent to 4,331 during the same period, up from 711 last year, DES officer in charge Lydia Donato said in her report to Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay. The city government also collected P601,000 in fines this year, she added. Despite the increase in the number of litterbugs, Donato said her office would continue to enforce the city’s environment laws and ensure “that violators of the ordinance are duly penalized.”—Miko Morelos

Suspected pusher, cop wounded

A suspected drug pusher and a policeman who posed as a buyer were wounded when they traded shots in Barangay (village) Tanza, Navotas City, on Sunday. Chief Inspector Romeo Cruz Ricalde Jr., head of the Northern Police District’s anti-illegal drugs operatives, said Pedro Valentin Perreira, 47, was taken to the hospital for a lone gunshot wound while Police Officer 3 Fidel Cavinta was operated on for a gunshot wound in the arm. The policeman had entered Perreira’s house to buy drugs when the latter became suspicious and ran away, leading to a chase and a shootout.—Niña Calleja