Bodies of Gonzales’ kin dug up in Ecija

BALANGA CITY – Police dug up the decomposing bodies of a couple said to be close relatives of National Security Adviser Secretary Norberto Gonzales in Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija last Saturday afternoon.

The victims, Rolando Gonzales, 61, and his wife, Imelda, 50, were snatched by a kidnap-for-ransom syndicate victimizing Central Luzon businessmen engaged in the lending business after attending Sunday Mass in Balanga City, Bataan last April 20.

Senior Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan, Bataan police director, told The STAR that the Nueva Ecija police was still doing an autopsy of the remains of the Gonzaleses that were dug up after five days of almost non-stop excavation in Sitio Ilog Baliwag, Barangay Dolores, some seven kilometers away from the main road in Sto. Domingo town.

The couple’s bodies were reportedly buried in a 20-foot deep tunnel, which treasure hunters had used, in the middle of a farmland.

Gaerlan said the couple’s bodies, which were in an advanced state of decomposition, bore stab wounds in the neck. Husband and wife were blindfolded, their mouths covered with masking tape, and their skulls smashed with metal or wooden objects.

Police were led to the abandoned tunnel by Allan Lopez, 35, alleged leader of a kidnap-for-ransom gang operating in the provinces of Bataan, Pampanga and Nueva Ecija.

Lopez owned up to his participation in the kidnap-slay of the Gonzales couple during interrogation at Camp Tolentino in Balanga City

Police began digging at the site using spades and a borrowed backhoe last Wednesday afternoon.

Gaerlan said a Bataan police team led by Superintendent Benjamin Silo Jr., Balanga City police chief, supervised the operation, in coordination with local law enforcement units. – With Ric Sapnu