Doctor shot dead in possible hospital rivalry in Laguna
SAN PEDRO CITY – An executive of a new private hospital in Bay town in Laguna province was gunned down on Thursday afternoon, police said Friday.
Dr. Roderick Mujer, vice president of the Global Care Medical Center, was leaving the hospital in Barangay (village) Maitim, when the attack happened around 5 p.m., said Bay police chief Chief Inspector Arlen Abastillas.
In a phone interview Friday, Abastillas said Mujer was onboard his sports utility vehicle in front of the Global Hospital and was backing up onto the highway when shot at by a lone gunman on foot.
Mujer suffered multiple bullet wounds and died on the way to the HealthServ Medical Center in the adjacent town of Los Baños.
“Everything’s still under investigation,” Abastillas said.
Article continues after this advertisementShe said the victim had to be taken to Los Baños, as Global Care still did not have enough “apparatus” yet for an operation. The hospital had just gone operational on February 1.
Article continues after this advertisementIn a separate message, Laguna police director Sr. Supt. Eleazar Matta said investigators are initially looking into business rivalry as a possible motive in the killing.
He said Mujer previously worked for many years in another private hospital in Calamba City until he teamed up with other medical doctors and put up the Global Care, just about 28 kilometers away.
The decision, police believed, may have caused Mujer’s previous employer business losses.
Contributed photo by Ato Peregrina Catipon
