Dentist shot dead while with son in Pasay clinic

A dentist was shot dead inside his own clinic while with his 3-year-old son Tuesday morning in Pasay City.

The lone gunman entered the clinic on the second floor of Don Antonio Building on Arnaiz Avenue and fired several times at Dr. Carlos Tan Acuesta, 49, a resident of Barangay Bangkal, Makati City, police said.

Pasay City police chief Senior Supt. Rodolfo Llorca said Acuesta was shot in the face and that the gunman was seen by a relative of the victim before and after the shooting.

Acuesta was with his young son around 11:30 a.m. when the attacker barged in, said SPO2 Joel Landicho. The dentist had no patients at that time.

An aunt of the victim later told the police that she was seated at the waiting area outside the clinic when a man “about six feet tall and well-dressed” entered.

She then heard three shots from inside and saw the man casually walk out.

Acuesta was rushed to Pasay City General Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Investigators have ruled out robbery as a possible motive after the victim’s family said nothing was taken from the clinic.

In 2011, a spate of robberies involving dental clinics in Metro Manila prompted the top officials of the Philippine Dental Association to call the attention of the police. In most of these incidents, women dentists were sexually abused at gunpoint.

In September 2011, the police arrested Albert Galang de la Cruz in Las Piñas City. He later owned up to 19 of the 23 dental clinic robberies in Metro Manila, saying he did it to take revenge on the medical profession for a friend’s death.

A Manila court sentenced De la Cruz to life imprisonment in March 2012 for a complaint filed by two female dentists, who were robbed in their clinic on Pedro Gil in May 2011. With Inquirer Research