Business exec stabbed dead in Pasig motel

MANILA, Philippines - A manager of a firm that manufactures car spare parts was found dead in a motel room in Barangay Santolan, Pasig City yesterday.

The body of Friction Materials Inc. plant manager Roberto Apuyan, 57, was found with six stab wounds in the neck and one in the abdomen by a security guard and a room boy of the Pitang Suite who checked on him when he failed to answer repeated phone calls at around 7:10 a.m. yesterday.

Police officer recovered a brassiere and a panty in the room occupied by Apuyan.

Senior Superintendent Mario Rariza, Pasig City police chief, said they are looking for a woman Apuyan had been waiting for in his room since Sunday night.

Rariza said Apuyan checked in at the motel at around 11 p.m. Saturday. He left his room a few minutes later, saying he was looking for an area to park his car.

Senior Police Officer 1 Ariel Galvelo said nobody noticed Apuyan return to his room. He said a cashier called up Apuyan’s room at about 11 a.m. Sunday but no one answered the phone. The cashier thought that Apuyan, a regular visitor, was sound asleep.

However, after several more unanswered phone calls, the cashier directed security guard Froto Togle and room boy John Mark Morales to check Apuyan’s room. They repeatedly knocked on the door and Morales decided to open it with a duplicate key after nobody answered them.

They found Apuyan’s bloodied body on the bed, clad only in his underwear.

An employee said Apuyan asked them to allow the woman, identified as Kiara Santos, to go up to his room if she was alone but to ignore her if she had a companion.

Chief Superintendent Miguel Laurel, director of the Eastern Police District ordered a deeper probe of the incident.