DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines – A Vietnamese tourist on Saturday slashed his abdomen and died in a hospital here after a fellow Vietnamese refused to lend him money for his fare back to Vietnam.
Superintendent Christopher Abrahano, city police chief, said Sunday that the bloodied Nguyen Tan Lap, who was identified through his passport, was found on a sidewalk in front of the West Central Elementary School here at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Abrahano said minutes earlier, Lap met with a fellow Vietnamese, Nguyen Thanh Thi, in her rented apartment just across the school.
Thi, a businesswoman here, later told investigators that Lap came to her to borrow money for his fare back to Vietnam. But when Thi told him that she did not have money, Lap drew a knife from his pants’ back pocket, slashed his abdomen and then walked away.
A horrified Thi immediately called the police who, minutes later, arrived and took Lap to the nearby Cuison Family Hospital. Lap died at 3:40 p.m.
Abrahano said Lap arrived in the country on June 4 and was supposed to return to Vietnam on June 10. He said Lap had been going in and out of the country in the past few months.
Abrahano said Thi did not really know Lap and why he was in this city, although, he said, they both came from Qui Nhon city in Vietnam.