Brother-musician of actress Pinky Amador found dead

THE elder brother of actress Pinky Amador was found dead in a room inside his rented apartment on Sanson Road, Lahug, Cebu City, shortly before noon yesterday.

The body of musician Emmanuel “Manny” Amador, 49, of Makati City was already bloated and in a state of decomposition when it was found by his neighbors and the owner of the apartment at past 11 a.m.

Amador, who was a diabetic, might have died after suffering a heart attack, said SPO4 Alex Dacua, Cebu City Police Homicide Section investigator.

no foul play

Dacua said he saw no sign of foul play in Amador’s death.

He also said Amador might have died three days ago and his body was found only when some neighbors complained of foul odor coming from his room.

He said the musician might have been working on his laptop when he suffered a heart attack.

The apartment has three tenants in the ground floor including Amador. However, the first tenant from another room was on vacation while the second tenant, a woman, from another room failed to notice that Amador had died.

Dacua said that they would wait for the autopsy results on Amador’s body before making any conclusion on the cause of death.

Erwin Quisido, owner of the Salonga School of Rock in Mango Avenue, Cebu City, said Amador worked as part-time music instructor of the school since April.

Amador was last seen at the school on Monday evening attending to his classes.

On Tuesday, Quisido said, Amador had no class, but on Wednesday, Amador failed to report for work and did not answer calls and text.

heart attack

Quisido said Amador might have died on Tuesday evening or Wednesday.

He, too, said he believed Amador might have suffered a heart attack, since he was a diabetic.

He said Amador’s relatives including his younger sister, actress Pinky, were surprised of his death.

He said Pinky and other relatives were scheduled to be in Cebu late yesterday.

Manny Amador was a guitarist of a band, the Breed, in the ’80s and ’90s.

One of the band’s hit songs, “Black Mercedez Benz,” exposes the social gap and political atmosphere in the Philippines. His band’s contemporaries were Wolfgang and Razorback.

loved cebu

Amador came to Cebu in late ’90s. He liked it here and stayed.

He had been a constant figure in the Outpost, a popular hangout of yuppies, artists and musicians.

“Shocked to find out about Manny’s death. We lost a good man and a dear friend. He was an amiable guy whom you could engage in a friendly discussion about anything and he would listen to you. He was passionate about his advocacies and not afraid to stand up and vocalize his opinions and yet respect other’s viewpoints. The outpost will miss a great musician and activist,” said Randy Su, co-owner of the Outpost and Amador’s friend. (See separate story on page 21)

Amador was also a contributor of Cebu Daily News, an IT consultant and owns the company magNet Communications.

He was voted one of the Internet’s most influential Filipinos in an online survey of the The Web Magazine in 1999.  With reports from Correspondents Chito O. Aragon and Edison A. delos Angeles