CEBU, Philippines - A priest was found dead Wednesday night inside one of the rooms of a downtown hotel.
While the death has been certified by the funeral parlor as due to natural causes as the victim underwent a heart by-pass surgery last year, the circumstances leading to it have been rife with speculations.
The fatality was identified as Fr. Alexander Silvano Villamor Salve, 52, of the Santo Tomas de Villanueva Parish in Pardo, Cebu City.
His body was found around 7 p.m. when a woman alerted the guard on duty at the Pacific Tourist Inn along V. Gullas St. that one of their guests seemed to have suffered a heart attack.
Paramedics from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) were called to attend to Fr. Salve and rushed him to the Perpetual Succour Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
Due to the circumstances of the discovery of the body, speculations arose that he had been with another person, probably a woman, which could have resulted to the cardiac arrest.
Fr. Salve reportedly underwent a heart by-pass in September last year and has had several mild attacks after that.
The speculations have been denied by parishioners, who said that the priest was a very kind person, and must have gone to the hotel only to rest after he felt ill.
The priest reportedly went to a housewarming in barangay Tisa earlier that day along with a certain Takloy, who is a sacristan and at the same time the priest’s assistant. They were also accompanied by the cook of the convent, a certain Mimi.
From Tisa, the group went to a mall where the priest treated the sacristan and cook at a fastfood outlet before allowing them to go home.
From the mall, the priest reportedly took a taxi going to the downtown hotel where he checked in around 5:45 p.m., said the guard.
At around 7 p.m., two women informed the guard on duty, Vergilio Sevilleta, that one of the guests seemed to have suffered a heart attack in his room.
The guard rushed to check and found the half opened door to the priest’s room and saw him on the bed with only his underwear on and with a blanket covering the lower half of his body.
Paramedics from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) rushed to the scene and brought Fr. Salve to the Perpetual Succour Hospital where he was declared dead.
Records of the hotel however showed that the priest did not register using his real name. In the register, he used the name Al Villa, a resident of Davao City.
The two women, who reported to the guard, could not also be located.
The guard said that one was around 23 years old and the other was about 26. He also described them as fair looking.
He said that one of the women, who was upstairs called her companion, who was at the lobby and said that she saw the man in the room as the door was half open.
Exor Cabilunas, president of the Parish Pastoral Council, said that Fr. Salve was just staying in the hotel simply for “relaxation purposes.”
“Dili ko motoo na naay babaye sa iyang kwarto. Gusto na siya mopahuway, naatlan siguro na siya na naglain iyang lawas.”
When asked why Fr. Salve was in the hotel when he had church obligations and other functions, Fr. Cempronio Atienza, from the same parish, said that there was no way to know but to ask the “dead man” himself.
The death certificate from the funeral home where Fr. Salve’s body was brought showed that there were three causes of his death — myocardial infarction, post coronary bypass and coronary artery disease.
Police Officer 2 Michael Codaste of Cebu City Police Office-Homicide Section said that they only learned about the incident at 8 a.m. yesterday.
They went to the hotel to do an investigation and found no signs of foul play.
On speculations that the priest had a companion, Codaste said, “Wala man sad laing nakuha na butang sa iyang kwarto. Wala’y disarray sa mga butang sa sulod ‘nya intact pa sad iyang polo ug tsinelas.” — /NLQ (FREEMAN NEWS)