CEBU CITY – The Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory-Central Visayas stood by its findings that there were no indications that Christine Lee Silawan was raped.
Presenting his findings in a press briefing yesterday, Supt. Benjamin Lara, the medico-legal officer of the regional police, revealed that the DNA and cotton swab results showed no signs of rape.
“No mixed DNA was found which means only Christine’s DNA was found in the swab,” said Lara.
Lara added that there was no male specimen found in the girl’s genitalia as well as signs of abrasions and hematoma.
“We took three swabs of the vagina and there no traces of male specimen which can be usually found in the cervical lip,” said Lara.
For someone who has been a medico-legal officer since 2003 and has handled at least 200 rape cases, Lara said it is impossible for him not to see abrasions or signs of bleeding in the victim’s private organs.
While there were no signs of injuries in the victim’s genitals, Lara pointed out that he is not discounting the possibility that Silawan was raped.
“There are other forms or rape, it could be through fondling,” he said. “Or it could be that the perpetrator wore condom,” Lara said in explaining a possible reason why there was no male specimen found in the victim’s genitals.
It was Dr. Erwin Erfe, director of the forensic laboratory of Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), who said that Silawan was raped based on his own examination of the victim’s body.
Lara explained that the varying results of the examination could be attributed to the times that the separate autopsies were conducted.
“I conducted the autopsy on the day that the body was found. Those abrasions found when the body was reexamined again may have been caused when I examined it first,” said Lara.
Silawan’s half-naked body was found last March 11 in a vacant lot in Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City.
Erfe conducted his examination last March 22, a day before the victim was laid to rest.
Lara said the body had been embalmed twice before PAO conducted its own examination.
Unlike Erfe’s findings, Lara found no ligature marks in the victim’s hand and neck.
“There were no pinpoint hemorrhage in the victim’s face or eyeballs. Pinpoint hemorrhage appears when there is asphyxiation,” said Lara.
Lara, however, agreed with Erfe’s findings that a corrosive agent might have been poured on the victim’s face that caused the skin to peel off.
“There were also bleaching on the skull,” Lara said.
Lara also agreed with Erfe that there could be more than one perpetrators.
Just like Erfe, Lara also surmised that some of the victim’s internal organs were missing because of “post mortem predation by animals.”
Lara also confirmed that the 30 stab wounds that the girl suffered were the cause of death.
“She had 20 stab wounds in the body and 10 in the head. She also had defense wounds and there were also indications that she was able to grab the bladed weapon when she resisted,” Lara said.
Lara said he will submit his findings to the prosecution team.
Silawan’s former boyfriend has been arrested as a suspect in the gruesome killing.
The National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas has filed murder charges against the teenage suspect, who is currently in custody of a home-care facility of Lapu-Lapu City’s social welfare and development office.
The suspect denied involvement in the crime but the NBI 7 has released DNA test results that the bloodstains found in a clothing that he owns belonged to Silawan. (Calvin Cordova)