Philippines official slain on U.S. street

PHILADELPHIA — Philippine officials Monday were mourning a government attorney fatally shot in Philadelphia and called for the perpetrator to be brought to justice.

John Albert Laylo and his mother were heading to the airport to board a flight early Saturday when someone in a black car fired several rounds into their Uber at a red light near the University of Pennsylvania, police said. Laylo was shot in the back of the head and taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead Sunday, police said.

Philippine Consul General Elmer Cato met Laylo’s mother at the hospital and said she was slightly injured by glass fragments.

Authorities did not disclose a suspected motive or say whether Laylo, his mother or the Uber driver was targeted.

The consulate general of the Philippines said the victim was an attorney for its government, Philadelphia’s KYW-TV reported.

Cato said he assured Laylo’s mother the Philippine government will help bring his remains back home. “We are also in touch with police authorities and have underscored the importance of our request for them to bring the perpetrator of this incident to justice,” Cato said.

Laylo, 35, had worked in Manila as a legislative staffer for opposition Sen. Leila de Lima from 2016 to 2018, then left to take up graduate studies. “He was so young and still full of dreams,” de Lima said Monday in Manila.

Laylo’s mother posted to Facebook on Sunday, saying she had been on vacation with her son, whom she referred to as Jal.

“Never did I imagine or dream that … the end of our vacation will be like this!” Leah Bustamante Laylo wrote in a post accompanied by snapshots of her and her son touring sites in New York, Washington and Philadelphia. “We travelled together and we are supposed to go home together! I will bring him home soon in a box!”