P200,000 reward up for info on ex-tourism exec’s attackers

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—The Laguna provincial government has raised the reward money for information that could help identify the attackers of former Philippine Tourism Authority chief Nixon Chua.

Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, Laguna police director and head of Task Force Nixon, said by phone Monday that Laguna Gov. Jeorge “ER” Ejercito has raised the reward money from P100,000 to P200,000.

Four unidentified men shot Kua in the face while he and his daughter were about to enter his brother’s house in Ayala Greenfield Subdivision in Barangay Maunong, Calamba City on Saturday evening. The attackers fled with the daughter’s bag containing P90,000 in cash meant to pay construction workers of the house that Kua was building in the same subdivision.

Allyxon, Kua’s younger brother, who came out of the house, was also shot in the shoulder.

At the Calamba Doctors’ Hospital, doctors declared Kua, a tabloid columnist, “brain dead.”

“He’s still in the ICU (intensive care unit) but doctors this morning (Monday) declared him brain dead,” said Milo dela Cruz, a close friend of Kua.

Police believed the attack was planned by persons who knew that Cua was carrying a lot of money.

Cruz said two of the construction workers hired by Kua went missing after the incident but they were yet to be tagged as suspects in the case.

Dela Cruz, who was with Kua’s family at the Calamba Medical Center where the victim was brought, affirmed that Kua was shot in the face and that the single bullet entered just below one of his eyes and hit his brain.

“It’s a 50-50 (chance of survival),” he added.

“He’s fighting for his life,” Dela Cruz said of his friend.

Dela Cruz, who has known Kua for more than 15 years, believed the attack was “purely robbery.”

Aside from the P90,000 cash contained in the bag of Kua’s daughter, the robbers also took away three cellphones—Nixon’s, Susan’s and Sue Ann’s—as well as the cake the family had brought with them, Dela Cruz said.

The Laguna police on Monday released the names of three of the four suspects as John Rey Cortez, Darwin Samiano and Noel Garcia, who were all residents of Barangay Maunong, where the subdivision is located.

Cruz said Kua’s wife and daughters identified the suspects, who were also involved in previous cases of theft, from the police rogues’ gallery. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon