Filtered By: Topstories
News

Traces of sperm found in bodies of 5 female massacre victims


(Update 3 - 4:30 pm) Traces of human sperm were found in the genitals of five of the 21 female victims of the November 23 massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, results of the examinations conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory released on Thursday showed. Arturo Cacdac Jr., director of the PNP Crime Laboratory said the five remains belonged to four civilians - Cecille Lechonsito, Mercy Palabrica, Miriam Calimbol and Rahina Pakawan - and journalist Lea Dalmacio of Socsargen News. Investigators, however, could not yet say if the presence of the sperm in the victims' bodies indicated that they were raped during last month's grisly killing of 57 people, including 30 journalists. Meanwhile, the PNP has not yet conducted autopsy on the remains of the sixth female victim, Cynthia Ayon. Possible sexual abuse Of the five examined, only Lechonsito was found to have bruises in her genitalia - a "presumptive evidence that there was penetration" during the Ampatuan incident, according to Dr. Ruby Grace Diangson of the PNP Crime Laboratory. Diangson said the autopsy on Lechonsito was "corroborated" by the findings of another medico-legal doctor from the PNP who said that Lechonsito's "pants was pulled down," indicating that she was sexually abused at the time of the crime. Lechonsito and Palabrica were among the five passengers of the red Toyota Vios that was stopped by the perpetrators who thought that the vehicle was part of the six-vehicle convoy that was on its way to Sharif Aguak town. The two women were with Cecille's husband, Eduardo Lechonsito, a government employee who was supposed to be rushed to a hospital in Cotabato City after suffering a mild stroke, Eduardo's co-worker, Daryll delos Reyes, and driver Wilhelm Palabrica. Meanwhile, Diangson said results of the acid phosphatase tests on the remains of the four other women were not enough to conclude that they were raped during the Nov. 23 incident. "So we have to proceed with the the DNA. If and when there is Y chromosome that we will find, then we will be getting samples from the husbands of (the)...victims," said Diangson. Cacdac said two of the four women were married. "It is a presumptive evidence because two of the female victims are married and it is possible that she stayed with her husband before the incident." Unzipped pants Earlier vaginal smear tests were done by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on the remains of the 15 other female massacre victims, including that of Genalyn Mangudadatu, who sustained 17 gunshot wounds that included injuries in her genitalia. Genalyn, the wife of Buluan vice mayor Ismael Mangudadatu, along with other Mangudadatu women, was supposed to file a certificate of candidacy for governor on her husband's behalf when the massacre happened. The NBI tests on the remains of Genalyn and 14 other female victims yielded negative results. Not one of the women examined had traces of human sperm, Floresto Arizala, chief of the NBI’s Medico-Legal Division said on Monday. Arizala said bloating of the remains of the victims could have caused the unzipping of their pants. “Bloating and decomposition will actually force (down) the zipper…Yung huli kong nakita 23 lang waistline na reported, nang mare-examine almost 40 (The last one I saw only had a 23-inch waistline based on reports, but when she was reexamined, her waistline increased to almost 40)." PNP Region 12 Chief Supt. Felicisimo Khu Jr., however, observed that only the female victims' pants were mostly unzipped, and not those of the male victims, "giving the impression that (the women) were raped." Khu, head of a group of authorities that investigated the November 23 crime scene, also said that the authorities who first went to the crime scene, more than three hours after the incident, saw that the female victims' pants had already been unzipped even before their bodies got bloated. Khu's statement contradicted the NBI's findings that bloating caused the pants to unzip. Arizala is not discounting the possibility that the results of the NBI tests might have been affected by the bodies’ “state of decomposition" and the time that elapsed before the tests were conducted. A DNA test could be done for a more conclusive result, according to Arizala. Before the results of the tests were announced by the NBI, a forensic expert who observed the autopsies done on the victims' remains claimed that authorities lacked the equipment needed to gather and preserve maximum evidence from bodies already in advanced states of decomposition. Dr. Benito Molino lamented that there were no refrigerators, not even air-conditioners to help preserve the bodies. “They could have at least used lime to slow down the process of decomposition but I did not see any indication that they did that." "When the state of decomposition is this advanced, even identification can be questioned," he added - ARCS, GMANews.TV
LOADING CONTENT