Mutilated body of COA auditor found in Batangas

BATANGAS CITY – The mutilated body of a 64-year-old auditor of the Commission on Audit (COA) assigned at Manila City Hall was found stuffed in a suitcase in a grassy lot in Tanauan City last Friday afternoon, police said.

Superintendent Francisco Rodriguez, Tanauan police chief, said patrolling barangay tanods found the mutilated and charred remains of Rodolfo Gamboa, a resident of Sto. Tomas, Batangas, in Barangay Sulpoc.

Relatives identified Gamboa, while the police found his car abandoned in Barangay Santiago a few hours after his body was discovered.

Superintendent Raul Tacaca, Sto. Tomas police chief, said Tanauan police probers coordinated with them after they found an address on the suitcase where Gamboa’s body was stuffed.

Tacaca told The STAR they immediately checked the address, a four-door apartment which Gamboa owned in Barangay Santiago, where they found his car.

Tacaca said they are now looking for a certain Melvin Villapando and Divina Bayo who were last seen talking to Gamboa. The two were Gamboa’s tenants in the apartment.

Tacaca said the two could have had an altercation with Gamboa over their rentals that led to the killing.

He theorized that Gamboa’s body was mutilated and dumped in a remote place in an attempt to hide the crime.

Joint operatives of the Tanauan City and Sto. Tomas police are now hunting down Villapando and Bayo.