Champion barista, graduating UP student killed in shooting

CEBU, Philippines — Award-winning homegrown barista John Michael Hermoso, 29, had already packed his bags for Boston where he was set to compete in the 2019 World Coffee Championships and hopefully bring pride and honor to Cebu and the country.

He was set to leave yesterday.

Separately, Kis Tryvl Ramos, 21, was set to graduate with a degree in psychology from the University of the Philippines-Cebu and hopefully help improve her family’s life after.

She was supposed to receive her diploma this June.

Before midnight Thursday, Hermoso and Ramos’ dreams were dashed by a shooting incident at a coffee shop on F. Ramos Street in Cebu City, where both of them worked.

Investigation showed that Hermoso appeared to be the target of the shooting. Ramos and two other employees -- Sherwin Dean Rivera, 23, and Jerome Amada – were “collateral damages,” said Police Major Eduard Sanchez, chief of Abellana Police Station.

Sanchez revealed that the two assailants had apparently waited outside The Good Cup Coffee Company and staged the shooting when the shop was to close for the night.

Hermoso is the shop’s co-owner and co-manager.

Sanchez said they are looking at personal grudge as an initial motive since the morning prior to the shooting, Hermoso was reportedly seen arguing with someone.

Police did not, however, give details on the person Hermoso argued with that day, saying they will have to investigate first.

Another possible angle being explored by the cops is Hermoso’s work.

Authorities are in the process of retrieving footages of a closed-circuit television camera to possibly help determine assailants who were wearing full-faced helmets when they carried out the attack.

At a media conference yesterday, Bong Abella, the other manager of the coffee shop, expressed his grief over the incident and urged people in the coffee industry to demand justice for the death of Hermoso.

He said Hermoso was a passionate barista. In fact, he was supposed to participate in the prestigious contest for baristas, the World Coffee Championships, in Boston on April 11-14.

Hermoso won in the Philippine Brewer’s Cup last month.

Meanwhile, the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP)-Cebu Chapter condemned the attack and called for justice for Ramos, who used to be a student-leader and a writer for UP-Cebu’s official student publication, “Tug-ani.”

In a post, CEGP said: “Kis was an employee at The Good Cup Coffee Company and was closing shop for the day when the shooters entered and shot her and her coworkers in the head.

“Kis, a BA Psychology major, was set to graduate from UP Cebu this June 2019. A former member of political mass organization Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante (NKE UP Cebu) and former writer of Tug-ani, Kis spent much of her college life serving the people.”

Abella, meanwhile, said the company will give full support to the injured employees.

Lt. Colonel Carlito Apilat, Cebu City Police Office chief of City Intelligence Branch, said the assailants were not customers of the coffee shop.

He said they will be retrieving and enhancing CCTV footages for better facial recognition. — JMD (FREEMAN)