2 UPLB students found dead in Makiling trail–police

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna—The bodies found on Thursday along the Mt. Makiling hiking trail inside the University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) campus were those of two 18-year-old students of the university.

Laguna police director Senior Superintendent Fausto Manzanilla, in a text message Friday, identified them as Mark Lorenz Valdez, a third year Bachelor of Science in Nutrition student from Muntinlupa City; and Kevin Lagadon, a BS Computer Science student from Caloocan City.

He said the students were identified by their families and friends through the pair of shorts that Lagadon was wearing and the shirt and towel of Valdez that were found on the scene.

A group of residents, who were planning to swim in a stream near Flatrocks, found the bodies on Thursday afternoon. They were believed to have been dead for days since the bodies were already “bloated and in the state of decomposition,” Manzanilla said.

Flatrocks is a huge boulder formation near the Mt. Makiling trail located within the UPLB campus.

Chief Inspector Conrado Masongsong, the police chief of Los Banos, said they did not want to speculate on the cause of death until the autopsy report comes out.

“There were no obvious wounds seen on their bodies,” he said.

Valdez was a member of the UPLB socio-cultural organization Kapatirang Plebians and was a former member of the student college council.

UPLB student and Kapatirang Plebians president Ren de Leon said Valdez and Lagadon have gone missing since Sunday.

Valdez’s roommates at the New Dorm, the on-campus dormitory for students, said the two went

hiking to Mt. Makiling on Sunday.

UPLB officials have yet to issue a statement as of posting time.