2 more bodies with torture marks found in Quezon City—police

MANILA, Philippines—Two more bodies bearing torture marks were found in different places in Quezon City on Wednesday, bringing to five the number of dumped bodies recorded by the city police in the last three days alone, police records showed.

Police Office 1 Alvin Quisumbing of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD-CIDU) identified the latest victims as Dereck Page, 25, of Moonstar St., Las Villas del Ciello Homes, Sunville Subdivision, Barangay (village) Culiat, Quezon City; and Gilbert Borja, 29, of No. 4 Ginintuang Landas St., Barangay Sta. Monica, Novaliches, also in Quezon City.

Quisumbing said the body of Page with multiple stab wounds was discovered by a gardener around 8 a.m. at a vacant lot not far from where he lived.

Page’s wife, Maria Cristina, told police she last saw and talked to her husband at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, when he went out of the house to gather condiments for the food they were cooking for dinner.

However, she said Page never returned since then.

Meanwhile, PO3 Gregorio Maramag said Borja was found dead at around 1:10 a.m. on Wednesday, at the corner of Ginintuang Landas and Tatlong Hari Streets in Barangay Sta. Monica.

Maramag said the victim’s body bore torture marks and had a gunshot wound in the back and multiple stab wounds in the right side of his body.

Three bodies bearing torture marks and signs of summary execution were found earlier in separate areas in Quezon City.

Inspector Elmer Monsalve, chief of the homicide investigation of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), expressed alarm over the discovery of several bodies in the space of a few days.

Monsalve said they were still establishing the motive for the killings but initial investigation showed the killings could be part of an ongoing “gang war.’’