Cop killed in front of Quezon City lechon shop

MANILA, Philippines — A police officer who had gone absent without leave (AWOL) was gunned down in front of a lechon shop in Quezon City on Sunday afternoon.

Police Officer 2 Arthur Cordero, 40, was standing in front of the shop, which sells roast pigs, along Calavite street when two men on a white motorcycle attacked at around 1:25 a.m., probers said.

Cordero was assigned to the Manila Police District in 2008 before he was transferred to the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) Regional Police Holding and Accounting Unit. It was then he went AWOL.

The backrider pulled out a firearm and fired several shots at Cordero, who died at the scene.

The two assailants, both wearing black jackets and black helmets, then escaped on their motorcycle and sped off towards Manila. 

Recovered at the crime scene were eight spent shells and four deformed bullets.

The victim’s black sling bag containing a handcuff, fan knife, P313 in cash and identification cards were recovered. 

He is the second lawman killed in Quezon City in the past week.

On Friday, Inspector Romeo Tandas, 49, was gunned down while he was driving along Commonwealth Avenue in Barangay UP Campus. 

Tandas was allegedly one of the men assigned with retired Chief Inspector Roberto Razon during his time at the NCRPO anti-illegal drug unit in 2016.

Razon was killed in an ambush late last month in Pasay City.

In early November, Superintendent Edgar Cariaso, assigned to the Internal Affairs Service of the PNP was seriously wounded in an ambush near his home in Barangay Tatalon.

His ambush came a day after Police Officer 3 Rufino Gabis, 47, was killed at a stoplight along Kalayaan Avenue in Barangay Malaya when two men on a motorcycle attacked him.

NCRPO chief Director Guillermo Eleazar has expressed concern over the spate of killings of lawmen in Quezon City.