METROBRIEFS EX-SMC supervisor found dead; suicide eyed

MANILA police investigators found themselves faced with a real mystery when they found two empty spent shells beside the body of a former brewery supervisor who had allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself once in the chest with a cal. .45 revolver. SPO2 Glenzor Vallejo of the Manila Police District homicide section told the INQUIRER that they were still trying to figure out why Scene of the Crime Operatives recovered two spent shells when the body of former San Miguel Corp. supervisor Elpidio Malicse Jr. bore only a single gunshot wound. Vallejo said that Malicse’s body was found by his father, Elpidio Sr., inside the victim’s room at their house on Jesus Extension in Pandacan, Manila, at around 5 a.m. yesterday. The older Malicse said he heard a shot ring out and when he traced the source of the sound, he found his son sprawled on the floor and bleeding from a wound in the chest. A pistol lay near his right hand. The victim’s kin told the police that Malicse had been depressed since his live-in partner left him two weeks ago. “According to his relatives, Malicse and his live-in partner had been fighting over their being childless after several years of being in a relationship,” Vallejo told the INQUIRER. “What we still have to figure out is why there were two empty shells instead of only one [when he] had one bullet wound,” he added. IT TOOK a while for firemen to put out a blaze in Pateros on Wednesday night, not because the flames spread quickly but due to the narrowness of the streets leading to the affected area. A total of 11 houses were destroyed on F. C. Cruz Street in Barangay Magtanggol, resulting in the loss of property estimated at around P2 million. No one was killed in the three-hour fire which broke out at 8:55 p.m. in the house of Ernesto Palhensio. The flames then spread to 10 other houses which were all made of light materials before it was put out at around midnight. A FORMER convict may end up going back to prison after the police picked him up for robbing a woman inside one of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 2 stations in Manila on Wednesday. Domingo Lodor, a 29year-old resident of G. Tuazon Street in the Sampaloc area, was arrested after Hazel Pangilinan claimed that he tried to rob her at knife-point. The victim told the police that she had just alighted from the Santolanbound train at the Pureza station and was going down the stairs when she noticed Lodor walking closely behind her, trying to slash her bag. When she told him off, he took out a knife and demanded that she turn over all her valuables, including P300 in cash and a cell phone. She did as he demanded but called out for help before he could get out of the station, attracting the attention of two policemen, Police Officers 1 Emmar Bellem and Rommel Baylon, who were standing nearby. PO2 Jorlan Taluban of the Manila Police District robbery and theft section said that Lodor, a member of the Bahala na Gang, was released from prison in September after serving time for theft. A STREET sweeper made not one, but two grisly finds, yesterday morning in Quezon City when he found a man’s left arm and then not more than 100 meters away, a right arm. Calixto Alberto, a Barangay Sauyo volunteer, said that the left arm bore a rose tattoo. The body parts were discovered hours after the lower half of a man’s body was found at a vacant lot near a car parts shop on San Mateo Road in Batasan Hills. Tattooed on one of the thighs were the names “Boogie” and “Ventura.” The body parts were taken to St. Yves Funeral Homes for safekeeping and identification. FROM today until Monday, South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) operator Manila Toll Expressway System (MATES) will conduct maintenance work on the northbound down ramp of the Alabang Viaduct. The work will involve the micro surfacing of a 200-meter pavement toward Skyway to improve the road’s skid resistance quality and further enhance motorists’ safety. Only one lane will be closed at a time during the fourday maintenance activity. Gil Talingdan, MATES operations head, said that an adequate number of traffic personnel would be deployed in the vicinity of the work area to ensure smooth traffic flow while maintenance teams would also install safety signs. Motorists in need of assistance may call the MATES-SLEX hotline at 0908-8807539.