Agri dept. woman killed during QC jeepney ride

A woman working for the Department of Agriculture (DA) was shot dead by her copassenger in a public jeepney bound for Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal, on Tuesday night.

The police said they were looking into robbery as a motive for the killing of Nellie Palabay although they added that it was also possible that someone may have wanted her dead.

The 55-year-old employee of the DA’s Livestock Development Council and a resident of San Mateo, Rizal, was shot once in the back of the head around 6 p.m. on Tuesday as the passenger jeepney was passing by Commonwealth Avenue near the Central footbridge in Barangay New Era, Quezon City.

PO3 Jaime de Jesus of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said the driver of the Montalban-City Hall jeepney, Lowel Lanquin, had told them that there were only two passengers on board—a woman who later turned out to be Palabay and a man—when he heard a gunshot.

When the driver looked through the rearview mirror, he saw the victim lying on the floor of the jeepney.

The man, on the other hand, had already gotten off the vehicle and onto a motorcycle driven by another man.

The driver said he took the victim to New Era Hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival. Jeannette I. Andrade