Two male bodies were found in separate ravines in La Trinidad, Benguet morning of Feb. 27.
At around 6:30 a.m., resident Joseph Balian Aguindang was walking near the Mount Costa area when he saw a shoe along the road.
He tried to look for the other pair of the shoe at the dumping area of vegetables nearby, but instead of the shoe, he saw the body lying face down on the ravine.
Aguindang immediately reported the incident to a barangay kagawad near the scene.
The body was recognized three hours later as Johnny Rabang, 55, married, a and resident of San Carlos Heights, Baguio City. He was a taxi driver.
He was positively identified by his employer through his bio data.
His reliever told investigators that Rabang should have brought the taxi to its garage for car wash at 4 a.m. However, Rabang failed to show up prompting him and the taxi operator to trace his whereabouts through the GPS tracking system, which led them to Longlong Road.
La Trinidad Municipal Police Station Chief, Maj. Cleff Vencio, said based on their investigation, Rabang is listed as one of the drug surrenderers in Baguio City.
“He is a high value individual with regards to our drug surrenderees in Baguio City,” Vencio said.
The taxi driven by Rabang was also processed by the Scene of the Crime Operatives to look for foul play.
At Lamut, Beckel, another body was found in a ravine at 7 a.m. of the same date.
“There are two barangay peacekeeping personnel implementing the no garbage disposal ordinance along Lamut Road and they are regularly checking on the area, it so happened that they saw the cadaver,” Vencio said.
The male body was seen facing up and naked and is still unidentified.
Vencio said the two bodies might have been dumped one or two days ago prior discovery.
Police reported the discoveries of the bodies are the first cases for La Trinidad this year. – Ofelia C. Empian
April 20, 2024
