Once again, WPD officers display honesty

Three Western Police District (WPD) officers returned valuables and foreign currency amounting to more than P700,000 to the wife of a Japanese businessman who accidentally fell from the 14th floor of a condominium in Malate, Manila last week.

A black leather bag, a broken Rolex wristwatch and an expensive camera were recovered by investigators of the WPD’s homicide section from Imamura Kazuya, 57, following his fatal fall.

The bag contained 39 ¥10,000 bills (P195,000), four ¥1,000 bills (P2,000), 17 P500 bills (P8,500), four P1,000 bills (P4,000), a P100 bill, several credit cards, a plane ticket, the victim’s passport, a cellular phone, a pair of eyeglasses and a key from the Pan Pacific Hotel.

The bag and its entire contents, including the wristwatch and camera, were turned over by homicide section chief Senior Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr., SPO4 Alfredo Salazar and SPO2 Diomedes Labarda to the victim’s wife Maki Imamuka, who arrived from Japan yesterday to claim the cremated remains of her husband.

Arevalo said the death of the Japanese was accidental, after two Filipinos who were in the company of the victim at the time of his fall passed polygraph tests conducted at the National Bureau of Investigation.

The body of Kazuya was found by the three police investigators at the canopy of the fifth floor of the Malate Crown Plaza Condominium last July 16. He sustained a broken skull and multiple broken bones as a result of the fall.

The victim had visited the 14th floor of the condominium to look for an office to put up a business in the Philippines.

While taking pictures of the building interior, he failed to notice he was close to the edge and fell.

Arevalo and four of his operatives had been given commendations last month after they returned a bag containing more than P1.7 million from a foiled robbery attempt on a local shipping line in Tondo.

"These policemen displayed impeccable honesty and integrity beyond reproach during crime scene investigations, and it is just appropriate to commend the honest cops of this district," WPD director Chief Superintendent Pedro Bulaong said. – Nestor Etolle