Second UPLB campus murder in 2 days Marlon Ramos Inquirer
November 14, 2006
CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna -- Just a day after a university employee was shot dead inside the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), another worker was shot dead in the campus by motorcycle-riding killers on Tuesday morning, police said.
Police Officer 3 Elmer Gibe, the Los Baños police station investigator, identified the victim as Renato Del Valle, 39, resident of Sitio Sipit, Barangay Sto. Domingo, Bay, Laguna and a contractual employee at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), located within UPLB property.
The victim was shot at least four times with a .45 caliber pistol and died while being rushed to the Pagamutang Pangmasa ng Laguna.
Gibe said Del Valle was walking beside the rice fields at IRRI, where he worked as a “bird man,” when one of two bonnet-wearing men on a motorcycle shot him at close range at around 6:30 a.m.
The suspects then quickly escaped toward Bay town.
Gibe said two of the victim’s relatives who were with him did not notice that they were being trailed by the killers.
“The witnesses said the incident happened so fast. They said they did not recognize the killers because they were wearing bonnets,” Gibe said in a phone interview.
He said they recovered four spent .45 caliber shells from the crime scene.
Gibe said they had not determined the motive for the killing.
Last Monday, Juan Alborida, 46, was killed by a lone gunman in front of the campus building where he worked as a chief mechanic of the Agricultural Machinery Development Program.
But Senior Inspector Aldrin Abila, Los Baños police chief, was quick to dismiss the possibility that the killings were connected. He said they were eyeing a “love triangle” as a possible reason for the killing of Alborida.
“We are certain that these killings were not linked with each other. It’s just a coincidence that they happened a day apart,” Abila said.
He said he has ordered tighter security around the campus.
