Frozen human body parts were found in front of the National Bureau of Investigation office at Aguinaldo Street in Bacolod City at 5:45 a.m. Friday, March 1.
The body parts in a sack included a left arm from the shoulder to finger tips, left leg from knee to toes and two ears, PMaj. Glenn Montaño, Bacolod Police Station 2 chief, said.
A message written on the sack said: “William de Arca NBI protector ni Hanz Lopez drug lord”.
NBI-Bacolod chief Renoir Baldovino said since he was assigned in Bacolod in 2017 he has not received any reports that Special Investigator William de Arca has been involved in the illegal drugs trade.
The last NBI Bacolod operation against illegal drugs was in 2021, Baldovino said.
De Arca was the team leader of two NBI Bacolod operations against illegal gambling, including E-Sabong and fake Small Town Lottery operations, this month, he said.
“We have been focusing on illegal gambling” Baldovino said.
The note linking de Arca to illegal drugs could be a diversionary tactic by influential persons behind illegal gambling operations to discredit him and the NBI Bacolod, Baldovino added.
Baldovino said they reported the body parts discovery to the NBI head office in Manila and Bacolod Police Station 2 is investigating the matter, he said.
If this is designed to discredit the NBI efforts, it will not stop them from continuing their anti-illegal gambling operations in Bacolod and Negros Occidental, Baldovino said.
Baldovino said there is no Hanz Lopez on the NBI list of drug personalities and the name has not appeared in their intelligence reports.
They will tighten security at the NBI premises, he said.
The CCTV camera of the NBI Bacolod office was off when the sack of body parts was left beside an NBI vehicle on the side of the road, he said.
“It is possible that the body parts came from a funeral parlor, they had no bloodstains and were cold, like they came from a freezer,” he said.
The sack containing the body parts was found by a NBI job order worker who immediately reported his discovery to the police.
The body parts were brought to the ABE Funeral Parlor for examination and proper disposition, Montaño said.
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said let the NBI do their job in investigating the body parts case.
The people who left the body parts appear to be challenging the NBI, he said.
Those who left the body parts “chose the wrong city,” Benitez said.
The incident on Friday was the third time body parts were left in Bacolod City with accompanying notes.
Last year a severed right hand was found at Purok Riverside, Barangay Bata, in April, and two feet were discovered near a gasoline station at CL Montelibano Avenue in Barangay Villamonte in March.
Who those body parts belonged to remains unsolved.*