An alleged escaped drug rehab patient shot dead on Saturday night a security officer who had been sent to take him back to the facility.
The patient, identified as a son of a retired Philippine Constabulary official, Gen. Antonio Abaya, and nephew of former Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya, also wounded another security officer before a third stepped in and wrested his gun away from him.
Jose Abaya, 47, was subsequently charged Sunday in the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office with homicide and frustrated homicide. He remains detained at the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU).
Police Officer 3 Loreto Tigno of the QCPD-CIDU said the shooting took place at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the younger Abaya’s house in Green Meadows Subdivision, Quezon City.
According to Tigno, Roger Biquit and Richard Reyes, security officers of Silvercrest Foundation, a rehabilitation center in Parañaque City, were at the suspect’s house to fetch him after he reportedly escaped from the facility in July.
However, instead of going peacefully with them, Abaya took out a .357 magnum and shot Biquit in the chest, killing him on the spot.
He then shot Reyes who was hit in the leg. Another staffer of the foundation, Alexander Cabalde, grappled with Abaya and was able to take the gun away from him.
Abaya was later arrested by responding policemen and turned over to the custody of the QCPD-CIDU.
Abaya told police investigators that he shot the security officers after he mistook them for intruders.
He claimed he had just arrived at his house when the two men pounced on him, forcing him to draw his firearm to defend himself.
Cabalde and Reyes, meanwhile, said that they were unaware that Abaya was armed. They said they were waiting for him inside his house when he suddenly shot them.