Saturday, November 17, 2007 Ledesma: Raped By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
AFTER all the brouhaha and the political noise surrounding the death-by-suicide of Mariannet Amper, the medico legal who did an autopsy on the hapless lass found out that the victim had been raped.
The findings indicated that she had been violated at least twice. The doctor found old and fresh lacerations. These, to me, are very significant findings for this would explain why Mariannet committed suicide or she was a victim of foul play.
It is apparent now that hunger was not what drove the girl to commit suicide or that there was misuse of intelligence funds as some naughty politicians had absurdly claimed.
Media got stung because they put premium on the dramatics of politicians and the sad stories of panhandling non-government organizations.
It appears now that she was raped. There is that old laceration which would indicate that she had been raped. She endured this one despite the excruciating trauma that she was going through. The fresh laceration showed that she was violated again. This one she could not bear and she snapped.
She could not bare her anguish to anyone. Not even to her mother. That is why she bared her soul only in her diary. Her travails, I am sure, were written in those pages that were missing. If someone from outside her immediate kin violated her, I am sure that she could have revealed this to her mother. But she did not have the heart to tell her mother for reasons that have yet to be answered by way of further investigation.
It was not because of poverty that she died. It was because a beast that drove the girl to commit suicide to end it all assuming that that beast did not hang her to simulate a suicide and thereby cover his crime.
These findings should now put an end to unkind speculations. I wonder though whether those who accused Mayor Duterte for not using the city's intelligence fund to avert suicides among the poor should go through the same feat of appearing in local and national media to explain that it was not suicide after all.
I also hope that the outpourings of sympathy will not stop with the sudden turn of events. Instead, maybe we should support the Boys Town in Maa and similar institutions catering to children in need of temporary and life-long help. The Boys Town has a proven track when it comes to helping homeless children. Maybe the City Sanggunian of Davao should look at how they can increase their subsidy to the Boys Town.
On the other hand, the city-operated temporary shelter -Pag-asa Homes for Girls and Paginhawaan Drop-in Center for Boys - should be expanded to provide more extensive assistance. Maybe foreign donors should help these institutions in Davao City instead of subsidizing foundations that are at best an organized racket of a few enterprising crooks.
