Body found inside taxi

Makati City traffic enforcers found a decomposing body yesterday inside an impounded mega taxi that was towed away by the city government two days ago.

Police said the bloated body of Ronaldo Reyes, 27, was discovered by operatives of the Makati Public Safety (MAPSA) department at around 9 a.m. inside a red Mitsubishi Adventure (XHX 437) at an impounding area on Yakal street, San Antonio Village.

Case investigator PO1 Reuel Riodique of the Makati police homicide division said MAPSA officers told him that the taxi was emitting an unbearable stench and that blood was dripping from the vehicle.

Forcing open the vehicle, MAPSA officers saw Reyes’ body wedged between the middle seat and its back rest.

MAPSA told police the vehicle was towed last Wednesday after it was left unattended on Legaspi street in Legaspi Village.

Enforcers added they did not see anything suspicious inside the vehicle when it was towed.

MAPSA operatives are prohibited from opening towed vehicles.

The victim’s sister, Rosalinda Anam, told police that she and other relatives had been looking for Reyes since Aug. 25 after he failed to return home from work.

She said that her brother’s colleagues at the taxi service last saw him alive on Wednesday night, picking up seven passengers in Barangay San Bartolome in Novaliches.

Hours later, they heard him on the cab’s VHF radio pleading to someone not to harm him and offering to give his earnings instead.

Reyes, of Sitio Masagana, Tandang Sora, Quezon City had not been heard from since.

Anam suspects her brother’s death could be part of neighbor’s vendetta against him. She told police the neighbor had repeatedly threatened Reyes days before he went missing.

Reyes’ body has been brought to the Veronica Funeral Parlor in Pasay City for autopsy.

Anam said she believes her brother was tortured before he was killed as his arms bore huge bruises.

Meanwhile, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have arrested a taxi driver tagged as one of the six men who allegedly kidnapped a woman for a ransom in Parañaque City last Tuesday.

Eddie Delumin, 38, of Tandang Sora, Quezon City was positively identified by victim Angielyn Castillo as one of her abductors, NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco said at a press conference.

Wycoco said Castillo was released unharmed by her abductors even before a payoff could be made apparently for fear of being arrested like Delumin.

The NBI chief said agents are now hunting down five other men who eluded arrest. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe