A day after a Manila policeman was reported missing, the woman he was last seen with turned up dead.
A trail of blood led to the discovery of the body of the woman—known only to police station personnel as “Bangenge” (wasted) and a suspected drug user who turned into a police informant—on the coastline near the boundary of Navotas City and Manila late Monday.
Manila Police District homicide section chief Senior Insp. Joselito de Ocampo said the slain woman was last seen with SPO2 Teofilo Panlilio, 54, a member of the MPD District Headquarters Support Unit (DHSU), who was reported missing by his family on Sunday.
Her body was found dumped on the shore near Davila Street, Barangay Navotas West, after a resident followed drops of blood that started from the Manila side of the Manila Bay coastline.
“She was called ‘Bangenge’ by people at the (MPD) headquarters and used to act as Panlilio’s drug informant,” Ocampo said. He added that Bangenge was earlier arrested by antinarcotics personnel and was apparently released in exchange for information on other drug offenders.
According to the Navotas police, the body was found by a resident at around 10:30 p.m. Monday. It bore two bullet wounds in the chest and stomach.
“The suspects put adhesive plaster over the bullet wounds to prevent blood from oozing while they dragged the body (to the site). They apparently wanted to make it appear that the body simply washed ashore,” Ocampo said.
The homicide section chief theorized that the actual killing was done in the Isla Puting Bato slum community in Tondo, Manila.
Ocampo also disclosed that Panlilio’s family on Sunday started receiving text and Facebook messages from people they know relaying “rumors” that a policeman had been executed in Isla Puting Bato along with his female companion.
An MPD report said Panlilio and Bangenge left the MPD headquarters together on Saturday afternoon. Before going, he told colleagues that he was heading to Isla Puting Bato for an antidrug operation.