Cop tortured to death, says PNP crime lab

A rookie policeman, whose body was found inside the trunk of his own car in Parañaque City last June 13, was tortured to death, police said yesterday.

Chief Superintendent Ernesto Belen, director of the crime laboratory of the Philippine National Police, said PO1 Dennis Maligaya, 24, was stabbed 21 times in the body with a pointed object.

Maligaya was also hit by a blunt object in the head and suffered bruises and contusions all over the body, he said.

"The suspect appeared to be very wrathful," Belen said as he clarified earlier reports that Maligaya was shot twice in the body. "He was stabbed nine times in the heart."

Belen said Maligaya, assigned at the Regional Special Action Unit (RSAU), died due to multiple stab wounds.

He said investigators of the Southern Police District Scene of the Crime Operations (SPD-SOCO) lifted two sets of fingerprints from Maligaya’s blue Toyota Corolla (UHK 479).

The crime lab chief said he is waiting for Superintendent Ronald Estilles, Parañaque City police chief, to forward the specimen of a suspect for comparison with the recovered fingerprints.

"I understand that Col. Estilles is working on the case and would arrest the suspect anytime so we are waiting for the specimen for cross-matching," Belen said.

For his part, Estilles directed five colleagues of Maligaya to report to Belen and submit themselves for fingerprinting.

"The five RSAU operatives were the last persons who were with the victim before he was found dead," Estilles said. "We will see if they had something to do with Maligaya’s killing."

The Parañaque City police chief has also summoned Maligaya’s superior officer, Senior Inspector Ryan David, to shed light on the cop’s killing. It was David, from whom Maligaya had asked permission to recover his confiscated service firearm at Station 4 of the Western Police District (WPD).

Maligaya failed to show up at the police station.

Instead, his body was recovered inside his car near the Marina Subdivision on the President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue in Parañaque City at 11:30 p.m.

Estilles said he believes that Maligaya was hit by a baseball bat in the head by the suspect who also kicked him in different parts of the body.

"He was stabbed repeatedly, mostly in the heart, to make sure that he was dead," Estilles told The STAR.