CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 2 Dec) – A prominent medical practitioner here, the medical director of the Jesuit-run Maria Reyna-Xavier University Hospital (MRXUH), was shot and killed by riding-in-tandem gunmen Thursday morning.
Major Evan Viñas, spokesperson of Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO), said Dr. Raul Winston Andutan, a urologist, was killed on the spot with six gunshot wounds in his body.
Viñas said the victim was on the way to MRXUH when he was waylaid by the gunmen at the junction of 12th and 29th Street in Barangay Nazareth around 10 a.m.
“Apparently the gunmen tailed the victim from his house until they reached here,” said Lt. Mirasol Capina, deputy commander of the Nazareth Police Station.
Witnesses told reporters that they heard a series of gunshots after the gunmen overtook Andutan’s silver Toyota Fortuner.
Capina said that right after the shooting, Andutan’s Fortuner hit a motorcycle driven by a certain John Mark Galario, then rammed into a store.
She said Galario sustained injuries on his shoulders and was rushed to the hospital.
The Health Action for Human Rights condemned the killing, saying “the death of Dr. Andutan confirms the continuing impunity in the country.”
The Council For Health and Development also denounced the killing.
“He was known to his colleagues and patients as an excellent surgeon and a compassionate friend,” the group said in a statement.
Andutan was a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine.
Mayor Oscar Moreno ordered the police to run after the physician’s killers.
The killing of Andutan came less than a month after gunmen killed Roland Sherwin Uy, 45, son of incumbent congressman and mayoral candidate Rolando Uy.
Until this day, police have yet to arrest the killers of Uy despite a P14-million money raised for their arrests. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)