PEOPLE are talking about...
* NARCO-LIST ON JUDGES. With Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin's order for an inquiry by SC Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta on 13 judges and 10 prosecutors allegedly involved in drugs, the persistent question in the local rumor circuit is whether any Cebu-based judge or prosecutor is among them.
The names were not disclosed in the second list read by President Rodrigo Duterte but their being in the list has been publicized. In the first list, read in August 2016, seven judges were named; of the seven, one was killed, one dismissed, one retired, one charged administratively, and three were cleared -- none of whom came from or was assigned in Cebu.
* 'SUGBO-AK' PROPOSAL IN 2017 would have three provinces, two new: Cebu Province, Cebu South and Cebu Southwest. Mayor Sonny Osmeña's 2019 plan would have only two provinces, one new: Cebu Province and Occidental Cebu.
'Battle of autopsies'
Superintendent Benjamin Lara, chief of the PNP region's medico-legal office, apparently didn't want to tangle with the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) on the findings that each office conducted separately on the corpse of Christine Silawan, the 16-year-old murder victim in Lapu-Lapu City.
PNP had made the first autopsy; its results were already out. But Monday (April 8), Lara spoke again to media to clarify its findings in the wake of the disclosure last Tuesday (April 2) of the findings on the second autopsy conducted by PAO before Christine was buried.
PAO's forensic team director Dr. Erwin Erfe had ruled that Christine was raped as they found "extensive abrasion and hematoma on the victim's genitalia."
Expanded meaning of rape
PNP's Lara, in his meeting with media to clarify his earlier findings, repeated that he found no fresh laceration to indicate sexual assault. He indicated, however, there could've been sexual attack through other ways, not by the regular way of intercourse.
He didn't say it but under the modified definition in the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, rape may also be committed by inserting one's penis into another person's mouth or inserting an instrument or object into the genital or anal orifice of another person.
Removal of victim's skin
On the "skinning" of the girl's face, Lara repeated his earlier theory that a corrosive substance must have been used to disfigure her or birds and animals might have feasted on the body as it lay exposed to the elements on the vacant lot in Bankal, Maribago.
That theory jibes with the finding of Erfe but the PAO forensic head was more conclusive about the use of sulfuric acid. Lara had some doubt though as the eyes, which would be reached by the fluid, were not damaged.
Others also noted the removal of the skin only on the right side of the face with a clean-cut delineation of the two sides. A Facebook post showed that image, suggesting that some sharp knife or scalpel must have been used.
On the same side
Lara obviously didn't want to quarrel with Erfe on the autopsy results. Erfe is the police officer's colleague and his senior on the specialized branch of medicine.
The two experts though may need to harmonize their findings when they go to court as the NBI uses the PNP data while PAO uses its own data. And both NBI and PAO are on the same side, the prosecution, with the public attorney representing the interest of the victim's mother who sought its help.
A news site ran a story on what it headlined as "the battle of autopsies" but it was later taken down. Perhaps somebody objected to the heading which seemed to pit the PNP against PAO, a situation that facts in the story didn't support.
It was probably later restored with a more accurate headline.
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