As we previously reported, Tarek Naggar was lucky to survive when he was shot at point-blank range by motorcycle-riding thieves, who made off with just 500 pesos.
His survival after the attack early on Thursday, July 22, was all the more remarkable as an ambulance failed to turn up and he had to be taken to hospital on a trike.
According to doctors, the bullet ricocheted off the 44-year-old’s ribs, missing his heart by millimetres and ending up in a lung.
Following nine days of treatment the joiner from Glasgow was released from hospital — but only after he had paid his bill in full.
After a few days’ further recuperation, he finally wed his fiancée Angie Bacaron, aged 27, at St Tomas De Villanueva Church — which is only a mile from the scene of the shooting — on Saturday.
A report in the Scottish Sun — headlined “Pill you take this woman?” — described how he relied on painkillers to get through his big day.
Speaking to the newspaper’s Ben Archibald, he said: “I’m still in a lot of pain and had to take paracetamol out my sporran during the ceremony to keep me going.
“But nothing was going to stop me marrying the love of my life. I think everyone was happy to see me on my feet again.”
There has been no word from police on any progress to catch the riding-in-tandem armed robbers.
As we previously reported, Mr Naggar’s best man Chris McLaughlin said the police had been dragging their feet in the investigation.
“They have still not spoken to me,” he told the Scotland’s Sunday Herald last week.
“They passed 15 photos of suspects to Angie on her phone and asked her to ask me if I recognised anyone. Two of them, one more than the other, looked likely.
“But because of the rough justice meted out here I wasn’t going to say until I was 100 per cent sure. The police still haven’t asked me about it.”
He also said that the British Embassy in Manila had been of very little help.
Mr Naggar’s medical bill came to about 650,000 pesos, about half of which was covered by friends and well-wishers following a crowd-funding appeal.
The happy couple are now enjoying a well-earned honeymoon in Thailand.
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