2 alleged suicides stump Manila cops

MANILA, Philippines - The circumstances surrounding two successive alleged suicides in Manila yesterday baffled police investigators.

The first case occurred inside a room of the Nice Hotel along C.M. Recto Avenue in Sta. Cruz at around 11 p.m. where the body of a still unidentified man was found on the bed with a gunshot wound in the head.

The victim, described as between 25 and 35 years old, at least five-foot-four tall, with slim body built, and wearing a black polo and checkered short pants, was found holding a stainless .38 caliber revolver, according to PO3 Jaime Gonzales.

The victim was rushed to the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

Chief Inspector Erwin Margarejo, who heads the homicide section of the Manila Police District, said the victim and an unidentified male companion checked in at Room 341 of the hotel. Minutes later, hotel staff saw the male companion leaving the hotel. They then heard a gunshot coming from the room where the victim was discovered.

Meanwhile, a 25-year-old plumber died of seven allegedly self-inflicted stab wounds while holding responding policemen at bay at a construction site in Malate yesterday morning.

SPO3 Richard Lumbad said Orlando Orpiana, a plumber-helper at the Malate Bayview Mansion construction site on Adriatico street, also stabbed one of the policemen who responded to the scene. PO2 Ceferino Papa Jr. of the MPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics unit, suffered a stab wound in the left leg during a scuffle with the victim.

Lumbad said Orpiana’s co-workers found him covered in blood and holding a knife in the workers’ barracks. Though blood was dripping from wound in his neck, Orpiana reportedly threatened other workers not to go near him.

Responding policemen, who pleaded with Orpiana to surrender his knife, saw the victim repeatedly thrust the knife in different parts of his body and slash his wrist. Orpiana was only subdued during a scuffle when he started to show signs of weakness.

The workers told police Orpiana kept saying that he had been seeing the figure of a large dark man in their barracks.The visions started after Orpiana suffered high fever for two days, they said.