Retired cop burned to death in multicab

A retired police official was burned to death after the multicab he was driving caught fire and exploded in the Transcentral Highway in barangay Tabunan, Cebu City on New Year’s Day.

Retired Col. Salvador Sanchez, 64, of barangay Lahug, Cebu City,  once  served as a warden of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).

He was  identified by his son Marlaw who recognized his father’s Seiko watch, eyeglasses and the muticab.

The incident happened around 6 p.m. on Jan. 1.

Witnesses said they heard an explosion and later saw a burning van-type multicab.  Sanchez’s charred body was found in the driver’s seat.

In an interview with radio dyLA, his son Marlaw said the family doesn’t believe foul play was involved in the mishap and that the vehicle caught fire by accident.

He said the multicab was defective and it’s engine would usually conk out.

He surmised that his  father, who suffered from  stage four  kidney cancer and high blood pressure, had a heart attack when  the vehicle caught fire and that the retiree was unable to get out because the door was defective and could not be opened immediately.

The family will cremate his remains bring the ashes to Sanchez’s hometown in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

Marlaw said he became worried when their father failed to go home on Tuesday night.

Marlaw lives near the house of his father in Lahug.

Alerted by the news report about the car accident, he went  to Cantipla on Wednesday.

His father was driving the multicab with  plate number GPY-184 from Balamban town in the west coast and was heading home.

Marlaw said he didn’t know what his father’s business was in Balamban but at  5 p.m. on Tuesday,  he received a text message from his father telling him to feed his fighting cocks because he would be delayed.

Senior Supt. Mariano Natuel, acting chief of the Cebu City Police Office, said,  “I doubt this was a suicide because there was an  explosion.”

Natuel said Sanchez was his godfather.

Sanchez was appointed  warden of the provincial jail in the  90’s.

Marlaw said his father was also assigned in  different police stations in Cebu and Bohol until his retirement around six ears ago.

Sanchez is survived  by his wife and three children.