Missing ‘lumad’ woman surfaces

DAVAO CITY—A “lumad” (indigenous) woman that police earlier tagged as a murder victim after body parts were found in a landfill here has turned out to be alive and has been reunited with her family.

Correcting themselves after reporting that Telepid Ope Manlatas, 20, who left her community to raise money in the city by caroling, police said the woman, a deaf-mute, surfaced on Friday. She was found six days after her disappearance was reported.

The development put police back to square one in trying to identify the remains dumped in the landfill, according to Senior Inspector Antonio Villacarlos, chief of the Tugbok district police station.

Villacarlos, quoting Manlatas’ relatives, had said the body parts could be those of Manlatas.

A staff member of Mayor Sara Duterte said that while the appearance of Manlatas was good news, the mayor was still incensed by the killing and mutilation in her city.—Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao