MANILA, Philippines—A scavenger looking for recyclable items in a pile of garbage on a Quezon City sidewalk got himself a shock when he found instead the badly bruised bodies of three men with multiple stab wounds stashed away in trash bags early Wednesday morning, police said.
One of the victims found on Mindanao Avenue corner Road 8 in Barangay (village) Pag-asa turned out to be 50-year-old bank messenger Refugio Tan of Barangay Nova, who was identified by his wife Marilou when she saw a clip of her husband in a television spot report.
“We went to the funeral home and I confirmed my greatest fear,” said Marilou in Filipino.
Scavenger Reynaldo Oroveza found the bodies while looking for recyclable goods in a pile of garbage on Mindanao Avenue. He reported his discovery to neighborhood watchmen who in turn called in the Quezon City Police District’s criminal investigation and detection unit.
“We hope that witnesses or family members would come out so we could find the connection among these men and establish the motive behind these deaths,” said homicide section head Inspector Elmer Monsalve.
Marilou told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that her husband was not related to the other two unidentified victims.
She said she last saw her husband at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday as he drove off to work on his motorcycle. She learned later that he did not make it to the office.
“He had no enemies, no police record. My husband was a good man. A witness said [my husband] was picked up and forced into a van while refueling at a gas station near our home,” she said. The motorcycle was apparently left at the gas station.
Monsalve dismissed any theory on “salvaging” or summary executions in Quezon City, saying that the incident was an isolated case and was still being investigated.
Case investigator Police Officer 3 Modestino Juanson described one of the other two victims as being 40 to 45 years old, five feet tall, of medium build, with dark complexion, sporting a spider web tattoo on the right part of the head and wearing a black shirt and denim pants.
The other victim is about 40 to 45 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, of medium build, with dark complexion, a tattoo on his left arm, and wearing a white T-shirt and denim pants.
The victims bore multiple stab wounds and bruises caused by heavy blows to different parts of their bodies.