Cop shot dead in Laguna drinking spree

SAN PEDRO CITY, Philippines -A police officer assigned to Lucena City in Quezon was shot dead on Wednesday night by his alleged partner in a small lending business in Los Baños in Laguna.

Laguna police director Col. Eleazar Matta, in a text message Thursday, identified the victim as Sr. Master Sargeant Dominic Obligado, 43, a resident of Barangay (village) Putho-Tuntungin, Los Baños.

Los Baños police chief Lt. Col. Louie Dionglay said Obligado was home from duty and was  drinking with his friends at a nearby store when he was shot at around 10 p.m.

“(Obligado) ran this small loan business and it was (Nabatilan) who he trusted to collect debt payments for him,” Dionglay said in a phone interview.

Obligado was taken to the Los Baños Doctors Hospital but died while being treated. The gunman meanwhile escaped.

Dionglay said they are looking into the possibility that money was the motive behind the shooting.  /muf