Trader slain, 2 wounded in Pasay City shooting

MOTORCYCLE-RIDING gunmen killed a businessman and wounded two others as they peppered the victims’ L-300 van with bullets in Pasay City before dawn on Friday.

Police said the victims were all asleep inside the vehicle when the assailants drove by around 4 a.m. and killed Efren Albao, who owned a chicken stall at the public market and was also a councilor of Barangay 137 in Pasay.

Albao’s two companions—his relative Edegario Albao and Raniel Escleto— were hit in the chest and the head.

The businessman was roused from sleep by the first shots and managed to crawl toward the back of the van before he was hit, said case investigator SPO1 Jenomar Geraldino.

The van (ZMW-689) was then parked on Galvez Street across the Department of Education’s Special Education Center. Geraldino said the three men were then waiting for a scheduled delivery of dressed chicken to the public market.

Albao, who sustained five gunshot wounds, was rushed to San Juan de Dios Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. His wounded companions remained under observation at press time.

“He (Albao) was really the target. The other two were only collateral damage,” Geraldino said.

Witnesses said three gunmen on a motorbike opened fire at the van. Niña Calleja