MANILA, Philippines– A security guard was shot dead and one was injured in an encounter between two security groups over a property dispute at the Burgundy Corporate Tower in Makati City on Thursday afternoon.
Police Senior Superintendent Manuel Lukban, Makati police chief, said the tension at Burgundy Tower on Buendia Avenue started at around 5 p.m. when a sheriff arrived to deliver a temporary restraining order.
Lukban said they didn’t know the exact details of the court order, but said that there was a dispute between the former and current board directors and officers of the establishment.
An official of a security agency Sidekick Spectrum which is involved in the dispute identified the fatality as Jimmy Lagunsad who was said to be shot in the chest.
“Problema nito hindi sya [sheriff] humingi ng police assistance kaya hindi namin alam kung kanino in favor yung court order (The problem here was that the sheriff did not ask for police assistance so we don’t know which party was favored by the court),” he said in a phone interview.
Instead, the sheriff brought with him his own security officers.
Lucban said the Burgundy Tower was closed and a shootout erupted between the sheriff’s guards and the establishment’s security team.
He said the shootout happened inside the over 20-storey building, but the fatality was a security guard assigned outside the building.
Clearing operations were being conducted as of posting, he said. With a report from Niña Calleja