THE PHILIPPINE National Police has formed a Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) to probe the death of the wife of a Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) official who was found dead inside her car in Laguna province.
Senior Supt. Archie Francisco, deputy director for operations of the Calabarzon police, will lead the SITG to investigate the Gloria Gonzales case.
On Sunday morning, Gonzales, 47, was found dead inside her gold Toyota Innova (UOS 146) which was parked in Barangay San Vicente, Biñan City in Laguna.
“The provincial police offices of Laguna and Cavite will be involved and the investigation is ongoing,” said PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor.
Calabarzon police director Chief Supt. Richard Albano has ordered the Biñan police station in Laguna and the Silang municipal police station in Cavite province to identify the motive and the suspects behind the killing.
Gonzales is the wife of John Gonzales, the PLDT vice president and head for corporate relationship management.
The woman was last seen at 1:30 p.m. on June 25 as she left their house in Parañaque City aboard her Toyota Innova. She wore a blue checkered shirt and denim pants.
The last transmission signal of the victim’s cell phone was detected in Barangay Acacia, Silang town, around 2:30 p.m. the same day. Gonzales was found in Biñan on Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
A police official, who requested anonymity, said the SITG is conducting “backtracking” or tracing the victim’s possible route from Silang to Biñan.
“We are receiving very sketchy reports. We are checking surveillance cameras in these areas to see if the Toyota Innova was captured on camera and if we can trace the victim’s route,” the police official said.
The police official admitted that they have yet to establish the motive behind the killing of Gonzales, who was reportedly involved in the jewelry business.
The Biñan City police station is still conducting an inventory of the victim’s Toyota Innova to see if any items were missing.
The victim’s husband gave his sworn statement to the Silang municipal police station on Saturday while his wife was still missing.
The PLDT executive told police that he last saw his wife on Thursday afternoon when she left the house.
Another police official, who also requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, said the husband also spoke of his wife’s jewelry business, in which she sold jewelry she got from an unknown personality.
“When we received the information that the last transmission of the cell phone signal was from Silang, policemen scoured the area of Barangay Acacia but there was no sighting of the victim’s Toyota Innova,” the police official said.
Three days later, the Toyota Innova was found abandoned on J. Gonzales Street in San Vicente.
A resident, Chester Gerodias, reported that an unpleasant smell was coming from the vehicle parked outside his house.
Policemen found a liquid with an unpleasant smell leaking from the back of the vehicle. Lawmen forced open the back of the vehicle and found a body wrapped in a blanket.
This turned out to be Gonzales, whose body was already in an advanced state of decomposition and her hands, legs and head were wrapped with tape.
The victim could have been dead “for more than 72 hours” from the time the body was found, according to Supt. Roy Camarillo, chief of the police medico legal in Calabarzon, in a phone interview on Monday.
Camarillo said Gonzales suffered three fatal blows from a blunt object in the head that might have caused her death. The victim must also have had difficulty in breathing as shown in the trachea, he said.
In a separate phone interview on Monday, Biñan police Chief Supt. Noel Aliño said it was not clear if Gonzales carried cash or jewelry before she went missing.
He said the husband told them that Gonzales was supposed to meet someone in Cavite the day she left their home but who it was or if she was able to do so was also not yet clear. With a report from Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon