PCG man killed in Port Area

MANILA, Philippines — A member of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) was killed by an assailant who chased him to his house in Port Area, Manila before dawn yesterday.

Neighbors saw Seaman Second Class Muktar Tahajid, 29, being chased by an unidentified man carrying a handgun along an alley leading to his house in Barangay 650 at around 5 a.m., according to Capt. Henry Navarro, Manila Police District homicide division chief.

Tahajid was a native of Central Sumisip in Basilan and a member of the Yakan tribe, Navarro said.

Wendy dela Cruz, who resides in the same house, told police she was preparing to open her store when Tahajid barged inside, with the assailant in pursuit.

She said she ran upstairs, then heard successive gunshots. When the shooting stopped, Dela Cruz said she saw Tahajid, who was clad in his PCG athletic uniform, lying in a pool of blood.

The PCG, which condemned the killing, is coordinating with the MPD for a joint investigation.

Navarro said he ordered his men to check Tahajid’s  personnel file at the PCG and determine if there were closed-circuit television cameras in the area.

A neighbor said the motive could be rivalry since there were talks that Tahajid was seeing a woman, but Navarro dismissed the idea, saying, “we are not leaving any stone unturned and unless we come up with something substantial, then that’s the only time we will talk.”

The victim’s body was taken to a mosque in Port Area and given traditional burial rites.