By MARTIN A. SADONGDONG
Police are hunting down the killer of a Grab driver who was recently honored by the ridesharing company for giving a free ride to a sick passenger.
Chief Inspector Rogelio Hernandez, chief investigator at Pasay police, identified the victim as Gerardo Maquidato Jr. He was shot dead on Bonanza Street, Barangay 189, last Thursday.
In a statement Saturday, the management of GRAB bared that Maquidato was a registered Grab driver of a silver Toyota Innova with plate number YV 7109.
A relative of the victim called out Grab on social media about the incident.
According to police report, a witness who requested anonymity heard a gunshot around 7:45 p.m. while he was inside a money express center.
The witness then saw the victim being pushed out from the back passenger seat of a gray Toyota Innova. The victim sustained a gunshot wound in back of his head which exited through his left eye.
The witness did not see the gunman’s face as he sped off towards Cesna Street using the victim’s vehicle which bore a bullet hole in the windshield.
“Sa ngayon under investigation pa ito, ina-identify pa natin ‘yung suspek pero ang tinitignan naming motibo ay carnapping,” Chief Inspector Hernandez said in an interview yesterday.
Although police initially spoke of one gunman, the Grab management said that still unidentified “suspects” booked Maquidato and rode as regular “passengers” before the incident.
“Iimbestigahan din natin kung may kasama ‘yung gunman pero initially, isa lang ang sabi ng witness,” Chief Inspector Hernandez maintained.
The Grab management said they are working with authorities “to ensure that justice will be served and perpetrators will be put behind bars.”
The victim’s body was brought to Rizal Funeral Homes for autopsy.
The GRAB management said that Maquidato was one of its driver-awardees in October 2016 for giving a courtesy ride to a sick passenger.
“Divine Lactao Ornum, booked a GrabCar for her sister, Prima, who was on her way to Quezon City to pick up bags of blood for her dialysis. Maquidato was in the area and was less than a minute away. Maquidato picked her up but did not ask for payment for the trip out of kindness,” it recalled.
“He enjoyed the praises of thousands of Filipinos after his good deed went viral because of a Facebook post from the passenger’s family,” it said.
Meanwhile, the management of Grab also said that they are in close coordination with the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), under Task Force Limbas, to address the series of carnapping incidents involving Transport Network Vehicle Services (TNVS) such as Grab.