Soldier's mysterious death in Pagadian City raises concerns

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Police investigators are still trying to make sense of how a soldier returning to their camp from somewhere mysteriously died along a highway in Barangay Baloybuan in Pagadian City, his body and motorcycle found about three meters apart along the route early Monday.

In separate reports on Tuesday, the Pagadian City Police Office and the Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Police Office said Army Corporal Erlito Guinalaran Pacaña was last seen departing at about Sunday midnight from the wake of a dead companion on a motorcycle, en route to their detachment in an interior area in the city.

He was found lifeless, sprawled along a stretch of a highway in Barangay Baloybuan in Pagadian City.

Barangay officials and responding police investigators had told reporters there was no sign of any harmful attack, or an accident that could have caused his death.

Investigators from the Pagadian CPO and barangay officials are together still investigating what is for them mysterious death of Pacaña, whose remains was reportedly submitted by the police and his companions in the Army for a medico-legal examination.

Soldiers in the Army unit based in Pagadian City where he belonged had told reporters Pacaña was healthy, exercises everyday and was known for eating only healthy viands such as vegetables and fishes.