Four armed carjackers apparently posing as cops executed a 41-year-old Japanese man here late Tuesday in front of his children and made off with his luggage soon after he arrived from Nagoya, according to police.
Masashi Matsuura, from Toin, Mie Prefecture, was handcuffed and shot eight times in front of his two sons, aged 10 and 13, his 16-year-old daughter, a Filipino driver and another woman who were with him in a van.
Matsuura, who had a Filipino wife and owned a pachinko parlor in Nagoya, regularly visited the Philippines. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a Manila hospital. A hospital worker told Kyodo News that he died from eight gunshot wounds to the chest.
The woman, who identified herself as Rachel David and is reportedly Matsuura's niece, told a local radio station that the gunmen, who were dressed in black and identified themselves as police wanting to inspect Matsuura's belongings, commandeered their van along the Quirino highway in a Manila suburb.
David said she and Matsuura's daughter picked up Matsuura and his two sons from Ninoy Aquino International Airport around 11 p.m. and were en route to the town of Punta, Tarlac Province, to meet up with Matsuura's wife when their car was rammed by an old Ford Escort driven by the killers.
"When the armed men got into the van, they said they were cops checking our cargo. They told Matsuura to explain himself at the police main headquarters," she said.
"(Matsuura) did not fight back. He was just handcuffed," she said. "The suspects shot him without provocation, then got his wallet and other belongings."