PUBLISHED BY THE BOHOL CHRONICLE ON NOV. 17, 2013
Aggenstein shot dead;
suspects still unknown
A German national who was declared by the Department of Foreign Affairs as a “fake honorary consul†ended his wanderings in the province of Bohol after two assassins ambushed him at Causeway road, this city, Friday evening and shot him to death but spared the life of the victim’s girlfriend.
Benjamin Aggenstein, who was engaged in various controversial and questionable real estate ventures in Dauis and Panglao towns, sustained fatal wounds on his body and head which caused his instantaneous death Friday at 8 p.m. when two unidentified suspects fired him at close range.
Aggenstein had run into trouble with several local residents in Dauis and Panglao, and was facing a string of estafa and anti-bouncing checks law cases before he was shot to death by a riding-in-tandem gunmen shortly after he left Bohol Quality Mall and on his way to Dauis town last Friday night.
According to several commuters and drivers who witnessed the daring ambush at a lighted area near the Causeway bridge, the suspects, after hitting Aggenstein in the body, dismounted from their motorcycle and came up to Aggenstein’s sprawling body and shot him again in the head perhaps in order not leave to chances his luck of survival.
“Kalma ra man ang nipusil. Mura man to sila ug dili taga Bohol. Wala man mahadlok,†said a witness, a resident at Poblacion Uno, this city, who asked not to be named.
Police are still facing a blank wall as to who masterminded the murder of a German national in an otherwise peaceful City of Friendship that has been experiencing nightly brownouts since super typhoon Yolanda struck hard Samar and Leyte provinces on Nov. 8.
It is even difficult to pinpoint suspects in the course of the investigation because Aggenstein had too many enemies during his two-year stay in Bohol, a police intelligence officer told the Chronicle yesterday.
Aggenstein, who claimed to be an honorary consul of a war-ravaged West African country, Siera Leone, was engaged in highly questionable real estate businesses, selling computer-generated models of town houses and condominiums through glitzy outdoor advertising and next-to-reality online marketing blitz which were believed to be bogus, earlier reports said.
Clients from all over the world who took his marketing bait had invested millions of pesos hoping to own a piece of paradise here in Bohol.
But Aggenstein’s real estate racket came under deep scrutiny after the Bohol Chronicle exposed his questionable business transactions.
He filed a string of libel cases against the Bohol Chronicle and its editors and journalists, demanding by as much as P700 million damages. The court however had dismissed the cases, ruling that there were no bases of his suits.
As he became more and more a controversial figure in the province and as more individuals lodged complaints against Aggenstein in court and before the provincial board, Aggenstein was declared “persona non grata†by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in a unanimous resolution that dealt a big blow to his stay in Bohol.
Aggenstein, despite having exposed to have conducted real estate business without permits and authorization from appropriate government agencies, continued selling fictional promise of high-end condominiums and town houses in lands he did not own.
The twin tragedies (earthquake and Yolanda) that rocked Bohol and Visayas regions had overtaken the case status of Aggenstein.
He appeared however on a national television when GMA 7 interviewed him in the aftermath of the Oct. 15 earthquake, taking a swipe at government agencies for the alleged slow arrival of relief goods for quake victims in Loon, Bohol.
Efforts to deport Aggenstein on the strength of the SP resolution and investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation and Bureau of Immigration were stalled by what others believed as the “slow wheels of justice.â€
Sources said had Aggenstein been deported back to Germany or to Spain where also claimed residence, his life would have been spared from those with whom he had deep-seated conflicts.
According to witnesses, it appeared that Aggenstein’s assassins were professionals because they were not concealing their faces when they executed the German national, and were in fact calm and composed when they shot the victim for all the people to see.
INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY
Gov. Edgar M. Chatto, reacting to the news of Aggenstein’s murder, has said he would task Capitol executive Romy Tagaan in sending Aggenstein’s dead body back to Europe. Tagaan would also coordinate with the German Embassy in Manila in the investigation into Aggenstein’s death.
Chatto called on foreign visitors who are in Bohol these days and who are still planning to come here not to panic, assuring them of their safety.
He said the murder of Aggenstein is an isolated case, and does not represent the current peace and order situation in Bohol.
Provincial Administrator Ae Damalerio, speaking to the Chronicle over a phone interview yesterday, said that the Province would conduct an investigation into Aggenstein’s killing.
“Despite Aggenstein’s trouble with his clients and partners and his running in conflict with the law, we do not approve any form of violence in attaining a resolution to any conflict,†Damalerio said.
“And we want to assure our visitors that this incident does not in any way portray the peace and order situation in Bohol,†he said.
Damalerio maintains that Bohol continues to welcome all foreign visitors here, adding that they can be assured of safety and protection here.
Meanwhile, City Administrator Edi Borja told the Chronicle yesterday that the city government was saddened over the shooting and killing of a foreign national in a Philippine soil, but he clarified, however, that the incident was an “isolated case.â€
“Kadto man gud si Aggenstein adunay high-profile case diri sa ato. Wala ta kahibalo kung kinsa gyud ang ni-interest niya. Daghan ko ug nadunggan nga kontra,†Borja said.
Borja, quoting pronouncements of City Mayor John Geesnell “Baba†Yap, said the City would also conduct a no-nonsense investigation into the killing of Aggenstein.
“Ang atong kapolisan sa Tagbilaran nagtutok na ning maong pagpatay,†Borja said.
Fearing the killing would have a detrimental effect on the peace and order status of the city, Borja has called on the public, particularly visitors and guests here, not to panic and misunderstand that their stay in Tagbilaran is no longer safe.
“Kinahanglan masabtan sa tanan ang background ni Aggenstein aron dili lainon ug sabot sa kadaghanan ang nahitabo niadtong Byernes,†Borja said.
On the other hand, Aggentein’s lifeless body is now embalmed at the Holy Name Funeral Homes, waiting for any loved ones or friends to show up and arrange his burial here or his ultimate return to Germany.
Aggenstein’s last-known girlfriend, a certain Cherry, is now recuperating in one of the hospitals in the province. She sustained a gunshot wound on her leg but doctors have ruled out danger on her life.
The victim was also known to have another live-in partner who comes from Mindanao and whose brother was made a phony owner of Aggenstein’s real estate business, but the German national had long severed his romantic ties with “the other woman.â€
The said woman was reportedly bearing Aggenstein’s unborn baby, but last September she went to the police station in Dauis town and filed a complaint against the German national whom she accused of physical and psychological abuses.
Following the break-up of the virtual couple, Aggenstein was last seen tagging along a certain Cherry after he abandoned his previous pregnant inamorata.
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