Duterte youth leader offers P50K for capture of Cebu teen’s killers

MANILA, Philippines — Duterte Youth President Billy Villareal is offering a P50,000 bounty for any information that would lead to the arrest of the killers of Lapu-Lapu City Grade 9 student Christine Lee Silawan. Villareal said the amount will be doubled if the perpetrators are killed.

READ: Body of 16-year-old church collector whose face was skinned found in Lapu-Lapu City 

“Duterte Youth President Billy Villareal will also be offering a P50,000 reward if the perpetrators are caught alive and will double it if they are caught dead,” National Youth Commission Chairman Ronald Cardema said in a statement on Thursday.

Cardema previously headed the Duterte Youth movement before he was appointed as NYC chair.

READ: Duterte Youth leader gets gov’t post 

“They just made a horror movie into a reality and Christine Lee Silawan is calling for our help and crying for justice from the bloody soil where she was butchered,” he added.

Silawan’s body was found in an empty lot early this week in Sitio Mahayahay in Barangay Bangkal, Lapu-Lapu City.

Cardema also called on President Rodrigo Duterte and congressional leaders to revive the country’s death penalty for rapists and those who commit heinous crimes.

“A Filipino Youth, an obedient daughter, a good church worker, that was 16 years-old Christine Lee Silawan, a model youth in our society whose face was skinned, tongue cut, butchered to death, & organs taken,” Cardema said.

“We must restore the Death Penalty for such gruesome horrifying acts. With their inhumane acts, the human rights of the perpetrators is now secondary to the safety of the 100 million terrified citizens in our society.” he added.

READ: NYC condemns Cebu teen slay; calls for safety of youth constituents

The NYC chair argued that rape and heinous crimes “must now be treated differently” to ensure the safety of the Filipino youth.

“Rape and heinous crimes are not accidents and must now be treated differently to secure the millions of Filipino Youth and our entire peace-loving society. We will fight and neutralize all heinous criminals, rapists, & terrorists in our country,” Cardema said.

The bounty for any information that would lead to the arrest of Silawan’s killers had earlier reached up P1.8 million.

READ: Bounty for Christine’s killers reaches P1.8 M 

Silawan, whose face was skinned exposing her skull, was naked from the waist down when she was found and was suspected to have been raped.

However, a recent report from the medico legal office of the Central Visayas Regional Crime Laboratory did not find fresh lacerations on her genitalia that might indicate that she was raped.

It was also found that some of her internal organs were missing. /muf

READ: Crime Lab: Lapu teen’s body is missing some internal organs

READ: Cebu teenager’s slay: Precise mutilation shocks, baffles authorities