MABALACAT, Pampanga - The municipal police have urged the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to take over the case of a Filipino-Chinese businessman whose body was found inside the luggage compartment of his car burned by still unidentified men at the Cashmere Subdivision here Tuesday night.
Senior Superintendent Abner Dimabuyu identified the victim as Edison Co, owner of a garments factory in Navotas, Metro Manila. Co's wife, Jinky, arrived here the other night to identify the body.
"While the upper part of the body was charred beyond recognition, Mrs. Co was able to identify him through his underwear, belt and pants," Dimabuyu said.
Firemen found Co's charred body after they responded to a report that a car was burning at the subdivision at about 8:50 p.m. last Tuesday. His hands and feet were tied with copper wire.
The car, a Mitsubishi Galant Super Saloon with license plate UFC-771, was traced to Co, but probers initially failed to identify him because his head and torso were severely burned.
Dimabuyu said autopsy revealed that Co was already dead when his body was burned together with his car. He said Co might have died from severe injuries in the head which seemed to have been bashed.
"We're facing a blank wall," Dimabuyu said, despite the checks, phone book, receipts and other partially burned documents found in Co's car.
Dimabuyu said Mrs. Co had ruled out kidnap-for-ransom and love angle as possible motive for her husband's slay, as she described Co as a peaceful person.
Dimabuyu said Mrs. Co seemed reluctant to pursue the investigation of her husband's killing for fear that the killers might go after her and their only child.