Missing businesswoman found dead in Cavite

MANILA, Philippines - A Manila-based businesswoman, who went missing after telling her son she was supposed to meet someone in Cavite on Jan. 7, was confirmed dead yesterday.

Manita Marti Salvador’s brother, Rowel Roberto Elizis, went to the Manila Police District’s General Assignment Section yesterday to say he has identified his sister’s body, which was found in Dasmariñas, Cavite on Jan. 8.

Salvador was reported missing by her 20-year-old son, Daniel, on Jan. 11, four days after she said she was going to Cavite to meet someone.

Daniel told Senior Police Officer 2 James Poso that their family became worried after his mother failed to answer calls on her cell phone.

He said when they checked footage taken by closed-circuit television cameras at the Archers Place Condominium on Taft Avenue, it showed his mother left the condominium at around 6 p.m. on Jan. 7 with a man and a woman.

Elizis said his sister was found hogtied with a towel and she had been shot several times in the head and body.

Drug deal gone sour?

Dasmariñas police chief Superintendent Ulysses Cruz told The STAR they received a report on Jan. 8 that the body of a woman was discovered at around 3 a.m. near the bridge of Barangay Datu Ismael. 

Cruz said a source told him that the woman was suspected to be a tipster working for drug pushers in Cavite.

Senior Police Officer 4 Armando Claring, who heads the Dasmariñas Police Community Precinct 2, said that initial reports indicate that Salvador arrived with an unidentified woman and a man known as “alias Palay” in Barangay Datu Ismael for a drug deal in Molino.

Claring said Palay left Salvador in Barangay Datu Ismael to serve as surety while he, the woman and another man went to Molino. He said the deal fell through and Salvador’s companions left her behind.

There were signs that Salvador also tried to escape but was cornered on the bridge, Claring said.

Investigators are probing deeper into Salvador’s murder, officials said.