Car of Quezon City dad’s ex-partner found

MANILA, Philippines - The car of the missing former partner of Quezon City Councilor Hero Bautista was found abandoned in Barangay Libis yesterday, a police official said.

The drug paraphernalia recovered by police officers in the maroon Mercedes Benz (PJW-727), not BMW as earlier reported, confirmed the alleged link of Rio April Santos to the illegal drug trade, Quezon City Police District director Senior Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar said.

Eleazar earlier said they are focusing on the connection between the suspected drug link of Santos and her reported disappearance.

“Investigators have no other leads aside from Santos’ alleged link to illegal drugs unless we get other information,” Eleazar said.

Santos was reported missing by her mother, Emiliana, two days after she was last seen on the night of Sept. 12 at her condominium unit in Barangay Bagumbayan.

Police said they placed Santos under surveillance after Bautista admitted that he was into drugs, according to Eleazar.

Eleazar said Santos’ Benz was left unlocked on the night of her disappearance in front of a fast-food chain at the corner of Green Meadows Avenue and Eulogio Rodriguez Jr. Avenue in Barangay Libis.

Police found no illegal drugs in the car but said they recovered an improvised glass tooter, a pipe, lighters, rolled aluminum foils and scissors.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage recovered by police showed that Santos was wearing a black dress and slippers when she parked her car in the area at 8:46 p.m. on Sept. 12.

She was supposedly talking to somebody on the phone before she entered the fast-food restaurant.

Santos left the establishment after 10 minutes and walked toward Green Meadows Avenue, leaving her car behind.

Police are reviewing other CCTV footage to check possible leads in Santos’ disappearance.

Santos’ mother earlier told reporters that her daughter said she was just going to buy mineral water for her son.

Emiliana said her daughter also told a friend that she was about to meet a certain “Major Rudolfo Lorenzo” for a date before she went missing.

Although she never witnessed her daughter using drugs, Emiliana said somebody had told her about Santos’ drug use.

Emiliana also denied that her daughter had links to Ma. Aurora Moynihan, the slain sister of actress Maritoni Fernandez, who was tagged as an alleged drug supplier to celebrities.