MPD awaits postmortem on TIP exec, driver found in foul-smelling SUV

The Manila Police District is awaiting the results of the postmortem examination on a top university official and his driver who were found dead in a sport utility vehicle at a Pandacan gas station Friday night.

Crime scene investigators picked up a strong foul smell of chemicals when they opened the SUV and found the lifeless Reynaldo Chinjen, 66, vice president for external affairs of the Technological Institute of the Philippines-Manila; and his driver Claudio Flojo, 64.

The smell came from the rear portion of the vehicle, a Ford Everest (ZKW-384).

A security guard at the gas station on Quirino Avenue was the first to notice around 6 p.m. that the two men inside the SUV vehicle were not moving. The guard alerted village officials, who then reported the matter to the MPD.

Some new clothes and a plastic bag of barbecue were found in the vehicle.

Chinjen, a resident of Congress Village, Caloocan City; and Flojo of Sampaloc, Manila, showed no immediate signs of injury, but the MPD had not yet ruled out foul play pending autopsy reports, desk officer P03 Alonzo Layugan told the Inquirer on Saturday.