TUBA, Benguet October 17 – Police authorities disclosed that one of the eight recovered bodies of alleged victims of summary execution was already identified by his father and son inside a funeral parlor in nearby Baguio city Wednesday afternoon.
Police Col. Elmer Ragay, Provincial Director of the Benguet Provincial Police Office, revealed that the identified cadaver belongs to Fahad Macananggal, 28, a native of Mindanao and belongs to the Maranao tribe but presently residing at Crystal Cave, Bakakeng Central, Baguio City.
Further, he added one cadaver was being identified by a relative of missing persons but it has to undergo DNA testing for proper identification.
Over the past two decades, police operatives were able to recover 6 cadavers that were on the advance state of decompositions and 2 skeletons of still unidentified individuals that were dumped in a 30-meter ravine along Marcos highway, particularly at Poyopoy, here.
He said that all the bodies according to the autopsy results, have no gunshots wounds. He said that one of the bodies bore traumatic injuries on the chest area.
Ragay said that they already took DNA samples from the bodies. He said that they are awaiting for relatives looking for their missing loved ones. He also said that they are communicating with other police offices and concerned agencies on the inventory of missing persons in every places where there are listed missing persons.
The police official claimed that the dumping of the cadavers and skeletons of the still unidentified victims of summary execution was a slap on the face of the peace-loving people of Benguet.
Ragay said that the bodies may be killed somewhere and we’re dumped in the area. He said that Poyopoy was known before as the “dumping ground” of victims of summary executions. He added something have to be done to secure the area from being such.
He said that there are many speculations on the discovery of the dead bodies. Ragay stressed that he strongly believes that such thing was not done by the police. “The provincial police office was adjudged as the bet police office for the past three years so it is impossible that our personnel will be involved,” he said. He added it is unfair to the police to be immediately assumed that they are the ones responsible for such inhuman deeds.
Ragay said that it is but unfortunate that the site where the dead bodies were found was only 200 meters away from a Community Police Assistance Center (Compac) of the Tuba Municipal Station. He said that in the mentioned Compac, during night time or early hours of every morning, only one personnel is usually being left there while the others are on Patrol. He said there it is hard to monitor the surroundings sometimes especially darks spots.
By Dexter A. See
