Missing Manila cop found dead in Navotas

MANILA, Philippines—The body of a Manila policeman was fished out of Navotas waters late Tuesday afternoon, the day after he was reported missing and after his female informant was also found dead.

The bloated body of Senior Police Officer 2 Teofilo Panlilio, 54, of Varona St., Tondo, Manila, was found floating by fishermen in the waters of Sitio (settlement) Pulo, Tanza, Navotas, at around 3:30 p.m. He was wearing only his underwear, bore bruises all over his body, had four gunshot wounds on the torso—one on his face—and had his right ear cut off.

Based on the state of decomposition, the corpse was estimated to have already been in the water 48 hours, said Senior Inspector Ismael de la Cruz, chief of the Manila Police District Homicide section.

Panlilio, assigned to the MPD Headquarters Support Unit, was last seen alive on Saturday, on his duty at the MPD front gate from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., the “missing person” report at the MPD General Assignments Section showed.

He never returned home, prompting his wife, Adelaida, 57, a city hall employee, to worry by late Sunday evening. To worsen her anxieties, family members on Sunday evening began messaging their son on Facebook, reporting that a body was found at a Tondo breakwater.

An immediate visit to the Del Pan, Tondo, Police Community Precinct negated the report, but the Panililio family was able to get unconfirmed information from Isla Puting Bato residents that a policeman had been “gunned down and the body was brought to the middle of the breakwater by boat” in the area, said case investigator PO3 Jayjay Jacob, of MPD-GAS, in his report.

Adelaida reported her husband missing at the MPD-GAS on Monday morning. Later in the evening, the person Panlilio was last seen leaving the MPD headquarters with, a woman only identified as “Bangenge,” was found dead with gunshot wounds also along the Navotas coastline bordering Manila city.

The MPD homicide chief, Senior Insp. Joselito de Ocampo, earlier reported that Bangenge, a former illegal drugs suspect, was one of Panlilio’s informants regarding drug-related dealings in Tondo.

Panlilio is reported to have been going to Isla Puting Bato to apprehend illegal drug offenders.

Although the case is currently under the Navotas police, the Manila police will conduct a joint investigation into Panlilio’s summary execution, according to De Ocampo. “The case, after all, started here in Manila,” he explained.