Davao caroling turns tragic for ‘lumad’

DAVAO CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte offered a P50,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of the killer or killers of a lumad woman who was chopped up after she was killed and her body parts dumped in various parts of Tugbok District here.

The body parts were found last Wednesday and Thursday.

The remains were later identified by relatives as that of Telepid Ope Manlatas, 20, of Barangay Dagohoy in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

Her cousins, Pinlao Intoc Atolan and Lorna Salanggoy Unalin, said they last saw Manlatas alive on Dec. 10 while they were caroling in Buhangin District.

The city government made it a tradition to invite lumad to the city during the Christmas season.

In the last few years, the city government has even set aside funds for their travel to the city, and provided food and accommodation in gymnasiums or village halls during their stay in the city.

During the holidays, lumad roam the city, using their native instruments to play music and carol to raise money they could use on their return home.

Senior Insp. Antonio C. Villacarlos, chief of the Tugbok police station, said Manlatas failed to return to the Buhangin gym, where she was to spend the night with her cousins and other lumad. Her cousins, according to Villacarlos, presumed that Manlatas had spent the night elsewhere.

Her head and limbs were the first ones to be found by a scavenger inside a sack that was dumped in a landfill in New Carmen on Wednesday.

The scavenger said he checked what was in the sack and found worn items and several red plastic bags. The red bags yielded a head and limbs believed to be those of the missing lumad woman.

Police autopsy showed Manlatas had bruises and her eyes were swollen, signs that she had been bludgeoned.

Villacarlos said police were also informed that the truck used to dump the garbage that contained the bags with Manlatas’ remains came from Buhangin District.

He said authorities believed she was killed in the area.

Villacarlos, however, said investigators were still piecing together pieces of evidence that could determine who killed the lumad woman.

Mayor Duterte said she hoped the reward she put up could solve the case.

At a recent conference in Clark, Pampanga, nongovernment organizations and government officials decided to find ways to help members of indigenous groups who leave their communities and beg for alms or carol to raise funds in urban areas during the holidays. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao