A ranking official of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) was wounded in an ambush in Quezon City late Thursday night.
Lawyer Daniel de Jesus, 46, chief of the BIR’s internal investigation division, was hit in the right shoulder after motorcycle-riding gunmen fired at the government vehicle he was driving around 11:40 p.m.
Reached by the Inquirer, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares condemned the attack but said “there is no indication yet that this was work-related. It might be a case of mistaken identity.”
Henares said the victim, whom she described as a “mild-mannered” coworker in the bureau who handles administrative cases against BIR employees, had “no known enemies.”
She said the BIR takes the safety its people seriously and that all death threats they receive are reported to the police. De Jesus, she said, had not spoken of such threats.
“If anyone in the BIR feels that there is a legitimate threat to his or her safety, we coordinate with the Philippine National Police so they can have protection,” she said.
The attack happened at the corner of East Avenue and Matalino Street, near the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) and a few blocks from the BIR main office where De Jesus works.
According to the police, De Jesus was travelling alone and driving a silver Toyota Innova going to Elliptical Road when the two assailants appeared on the right side of the vehicle after he stopped at a red light. The backrider then drew a pistol and started shooting.
De Jesus was hit but managed to get off the driver’s seat and run for cover behind another vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner, which had stopped on the Innova’s left side. The shooter kept firing, also hitting the Fortuner, but by then De Jesus had crawled over to the road median or center island.
After seeing the gunmen flee toward Philcoa, the wounded official returned to the Innova and drove to the PHC compound to seek help. He was later brought to the nearby East Avenue Medical Center for treatment.
The victim was later moved to another hospital where he was still confined Friday, a bullet still imbedded in his shoulder and his room guarded by the police, according to Supt. Limuel Obon, commander of the Quezon City Police District’s Kamuning station.
Like Henares, Obon said the victim and his family maintained that De Jesus, who handles one of the most sensitive jobs in the BIR, had no known enemies. Julie M. Aurelio and Paolo Montecillo