The 23-year-old son of actor Cesar Montano shot himself dead inside their house in Quezon City before dawn Friday, following an argument with someone over the phone.

Superintendent Crisostmo Mendoza, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) Station 6 commander, said Christian Angelo P. Manhilot, second child of the actor from his late wife, seemed to be drunk during the shooting.

Probers quoted the family housekeeper, Alicia Pancho, as saying that she was roused from sleep by the sound of a gunshot at 4:30 a.m.

Shortly after, Pancho went out of her room and found Manhilot sitting in the kitchen floor of their house at L-2 B-7 Yakal St., Tivoli Royal, Barangay Old Balara, Quezon City.

He was already bloodied from a bullet wound in the head and had a .45-caliber pistol in hand and his cellular phone and landline phone beside him.

Mendoza said the suicide shot himself, with the bullet entering his left temple and exiting the back of his head.

With the help of subdivision guards, Manhilot was taken to the General Malvar Hospital on Commonwealth Avenue, but he was declared dead on arrival at 6:18 a.m.

Prior to the shooting, Manhilot arrived home under the influence of alcohol at 2 a.m. and, instead of sleeping, talked with someone over the phone, investigators said.

Security guards of the subdivision told police Manhilot was taken home by a taxicab.

It was learned that his father, Cesar Montano, was not around as he was campaigning for his gubernatorial bid in Bohol with his wife Sunshine Cruz and eldest child Angela.

They immediately booked a flight back to Manila upon learning about Manhilot’s death.

Police confirmed that prior to the shooting, Manhilot was arguing over the phone but lawyers for the Manhilot family declined to reveal whether or not they knew who the person on the other line was. (With a report from Natalie Malayo)