Army lieutenant found dead in Kalinga

A lieutenant of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was found dead Tuesday at an irrigation canal in Barangay Bulanao of Tabuk, Kalinga, police said. The fatality was identified as Lt. Gerald Beluso, a member of the supply office of the 21st Infantry Batallion under the 501st Infantry Brigade based in Calanan village, and a native of Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. Beluso died from a head wound from a caliber-.45 bullet and a hack wound on his body, said Tabuk Police Chief Inspector Bobby Glen Ganipac. Initial evidence suggests that Beluso was killed elsewhere and dumped along the irrigation canal behind the Kalinga division office building of the Department of Education, probers said. The body was reportedly found at around 7:25 am on Tuesday, wearing dark short pants, with no shirt. The investigation of the lieutenant’s death turned up witnesses who claimed that Beluso had been having an affair with an unidentified woman, said Ganipac. But several witnesses who have information as to when Beluso was last seen, and with whom, have refused to make official statements, police said. The Army is coordinating with the Tabuk police to determine the killer and motive in Beluso’s killing, said Colonel Loreto Magundayao, spokesman and civil-military operations battalion chief of the 5th Infantry Division. Beluso’s remains were brought to his hometown in Cabanatuan after an autopsy at medico-legal facilities in Cagayan Valley.—Joel Nueva/LRS, GMANews.TV