Trader shot dead in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY -- Unidentified gunmen shot dead Tuesday afternoon the exclusive distributor of San Miguel Beer here, police said.

PO3 Eduardo Torres, officer on case, said Roberto "Bert" Padlan, 58, owner of Padlan Enterprises, was driving a pick-up truck on his way home at 4:30 p.m. when two men shot him at close range on TV Juliano Street.

Torres said the gunmen, riding in tandem on a motorbike, tailed Padlan from downtown where he was managing his auto machine shop and beer distribution office, before he was attacked.

"The suspects appeared to be guns for hire and made sure (Padlan) was dead before leaving the crime scene," Torres reported witnesses as saying.

Padlan, who also owned a sand-and-gravel business, moved around without armed escorts unlike other traders in the city.

In the 1990s, he and his mother were abducted by a kidnap-for-ransom gang and were freed after the family paid an undetermined amount of ransom.

Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema condemned the killing of Padlan, the second trader murdered in the past four months here.

"The police are looking at different angles, including business related or personal grudge motive," Sema said.

Witnesses said the killing of Padlan was very daring as it occurred on a busy avenue and in broad daylight.(Edwin Fernandez; INQ.net)