Teacher slain, his daughter wounded in NegOcc

BACOLOD CITY — He was looking forward to his retirement next year.

But public school teacher Romeo Valle was killed while his daughter was wounded Tuesday night when armed men, believed to be robbers, fired at them while they were heading home in Victorias City, Negros Occidental.

Romeo, 64, and a teacher of the Estado Elementary School, succumbed to a gunshot wound in the back that exited through his heart. His daughter, Joy Mar, 24, and an employee of a drug rehabilitation center in Victorias, suffered a gunshot wound in the back.

Romeo and Joy Mar were riding a motorcycle on their way home to barangay Estado, Victorias, when two armed men flagged them down in Hacienda Minoro, barangay 10, of the same city.

But Romeo ignored the two and continued driving. The two assailants then opened fire at them, said Supt. Alexander Munoz, Victorias police officer-in-charge.

Despite his injuries, he said Romeo managed to drive the motorcycle toward a populated area where he and his daughter sought help before he died.

Joy Mar was in stable condition in a private hospital in Bacolod.

Police said the assailants may have intended to rob the victims since there had been cases of robberies in the area in previous years. /INQUIRER