DPWH exec, husband gunned down in Tagum

TAGUM CITY, Philippines – An unidentified gunman shot and killed an official of the Department of Public Works and Highways  and her husband outside the couple’s home here on Monday night, police said Tuesday.

Superintendent Solomon de Castilla, Tagum City police chief, identified the victims as Jovita Santiago, 48, and her 46-year-old husband, Samuel, both residents of Block 2, Lynville Subdivision in barangay (village) Mankilam.

The attack happened as the couple, both engineers assigned at the DPWH Compostela Valley district office in Nabunturan, Compostela Valley, got home from work on their L-300 van at around 6:40 p.m., according to Senior Police Officer 1 Brigildo Lagula, Tagum City police investigator.

Lagula said the wife was chief of DPWH Compostela Valley’s planning division and the husband was a regular DPWH employee.

“Witnesses heard successive gunshots and a woman’s scream,” Lagula told the Inquirer by mobile phone. “Then another burst of gunfire followed.”

A man holding a gun was seen by witnesses taking a sheaf of documents from the couple’s vehicle, said Lagula. The unidentified man then fled on foot.

The police officer said the assailant may have waited for the couple at the scene.

Responding members of the police Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) recovered some of the documents, including a certificate of land title, that were abandoned several meters from the crime scene.

Spent shells and slugs from a .45-caliber pistol were found by lawmen inside and outside of the vehicle.

The police investigator said they suspected the killings to be work-related.

“According to a female relative, there was some sort of shuffling at the victims’ workplace. This may have angered somebody,” Lagula said. “But there’s nothing final yet as we’re still investigating.”

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