Philippine Customs Deputy Commissioner Art Lachica was ambushed on España Boulevard in Manila tonight. He sustained gun shot wounds and was rushed to nearby United Doctors Medical Center where he was declared dead on arrival.
Lachica was in charge of the Bureau of Customs’ Internal Administration Group.
The official was with his driver and bodyguard inside a black sedan when a motorcycle-riding man shot them around 6:50 p.m., according to Supt. Aquino Olivar, head of the Sampaloc police station. The driver and bodyguard survived the ambush.
According to a television report, an unidentified assailant shot Lachica while he was in his car waiting for the light to turn green at the corner of España Boulevard and Kundiman street in Manila.
Lachica was headed home from a conference at the BOC headquarters in Port Area, Manila.
Lachica was a holdover official from the previous administration, having been first appointed to this post under the term of former Customs commissioner John Sevilla in 2014.
Prior to his appointment, he was Deputy Executive Director of the Career Executive Service Board. He was a lawyer and Certified Public Accountant by profession. Prior to his CESB appointment, he spent six years at the Civil Service Commission where he rose from the ranks and became Regional Director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and taught law at the Notre Dame University College of Law in Cotabato City.
