MANILA, Philippines —The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) on

Wednesday said it would return the remains of slain peace consultant

Randall “Randy” Echanis to his family after his identify had been
established.

Maj. Gen. Ronnie Montejo, the QCPD chief, told reporters that Echanis’
right thumbprint matched with that on his identification card from
Barangay Aguho in Pateros.

Montejo said Echanis’ widow, Erlinda Echanis, also submitted a marriage

certificate and gave a statement to establish their relationship.

He said they would continue the investigation of the killing to identify the
assailants.

Echanis and his neighbor, Louie Tagapia, were found dead in his
apartment in Novaliches, Quezon City, early on Monday.

Another neighbor told police he saw about five men hurriedly leaving the
premises after he heard a commotion in the apartment.

The dispute over the custody of Echanis’ body was triggered by the
discovery of an identification card with a picture of Echanis but in the
name of a certain Manuel C. Santiago, a supposed a senior business
consultant for a company called Innotech Solutions Intl.

The police brought Echanis’ body to Pink Petals Memorial Homes in La

Loma. After identifying the body, his widow had it transferred to St.
Peter’s Memorial Chapel on Commonwealth Avenue. But the police on
Monday night “forcibly seized” Echanis’ remains and returned them to
Pink Petals, according to Luchi Perez, a lawyer for the Echanis family.

His widow condemned the police action, saying it added “insult to our
injury” and deprived her family of a “proper and private mourning.”
The family was told to produce evidence such as fingerprints or DNA test
results to prove that the slain man was Echanis.

‘Highly unusual’
Earlier on Wednesday, Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, spokesperson for the
Philippine National Police, told reporters that Echanis’ family still needed
a DNA test and ask a court to release his body.

“Only the court can decide. Thus, all test results and other supporting
proofs, they must present when they file a petition before the court,”
Banac said.

Reacting to Banac’s statement, Perez said it was “highly unusual that a

DNA test is needed in addition to a positive identification of the spouse
and the positive crossmatch” of fingerprints.

“That is making the family go through so much more suffering,” she said.

An independent autopsy to be led by the Commission on Human Rights

and forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun, which was planned for
Wednesday, may be postponed, depending on when the funeral home
releases the body, Perez said.

She said if the body were released on Wednesday, an X-ray would be

done in the evening and the autopsy would be conducted on Thursday.

Echanis, 71, served as a consultant for the National Democratic Front of

the Philippines in peace talks with the government during the early
months of the Duterte administration. President Duterte later scuttled the
talks, accusing the rebels of attacking government troops while the
negotiations were ongoing.

Possibly ‘akyat-bahay’