Gunmen kill prominent Cagayan de Oro physician

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Gunmen riding-in-tandem shot and killed a prominent urologist and hurt an innocent bystander in Barangay Nazareth in Cagayan de Oro on Thursday, December 2.

Cagayan de Oro City police spokesperson Major Evan Viñas said Dr. Raul Winston Andutan, medical director of the Xavier University-Maria Reyna Hospital, died from six gunshot wounds in the body. The doctor died on the spot.

Viñas said the victim was on the way to the hospital when he was waylaid by the gunmen along 12th and 29th streets in Barangay Nazareth at 10 am.

“The gunmen followed the victim from his house until they reached here,” Lieutenant Mirasol Capina, deputy commander of the Nazareth police station, said.

Witnesses told reporters that they heard four successive gunshots after the gunmen overtook Andutan’s silver Toyota Fortuner near a street corner.

Capina said Andutan’s Fortuner hit a motorcycle driven by John Mark Galario before ramming into a store. Galario sustained shoulder injuries and was rushed to a hospital.

The NGO Health Action for Human Rights condemned the killing and said, “The death of Dr. Anduyan confirms the continuing impunity in the country.”

The Council For Health and Development, an organization of medical practitioners, also condemned the killing.

“He was known to his colleagues and patients as an excellent surgeon and a compassionate friend,” the group said in a statement.

Mayor Oscar Moreno ordered the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COPCO) to speed up the investigation to identify the killers of Andutan.

The killing of Andutan came less than a month after gunmen murdered Roland Sherwin Uy, 45, son of incumbent Cagayan de Oro 1st District Representative and mayoral aspirant Rolando Uy.

Up to this day, police have yet to arrest the killers of Uy despite a P14-million reward raised for their arrests. –Rappler.com