Boy found beheaded with eyes gouged out in Negros cane field

BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines — The remains of a six-year-old boy who was beheaded and whose eyes were removed, was found Sunday afternoon in the middle of a sugarcane field in Binalbagan town, 72.7 km south of this city.

The police report identified the slain boy as MJ Burgos Aguirre, 6, of Barangay (village) Enclaro, Binalbagan, who was found on a sugarcane field in Hacienda Pula, Barangay San Pedro.

Aguirre’s body was found placed on top of his head, the police report added.

The police arrested a suspect, identified as Lyndon Aquillon Monton, 31, hours after the discovery of the body. Monton was picked up by the police at his residence also in Barangay Enclaro, said Senior Inspector Albert Sy, Binalbagan police chief.

Sy said Monton was positively identified by an eight-year-old playmate of Aguirre as being the last person to be with the victim.

The police investigation showed that Monton was released five days earlier from a drug rehabilitation center in Bacolod. He reportedly told a friend that he wanted to slaughter a child.

The police discovered the slain child at 3:15 p.m. inside the canefield Sunday after his eight-year-old playmate reported that he heard Aguirre crying and reported what he heard to the police.

A post-mortem examination conducted by Dr. Hazel Pagunzan, municipal physician, said the boy instantaneously died after his head was decapitated with a bladed weapon, the police report said. His eyes were also removed, according to the police report.

According to the police, investigation showed that the suspect lured the two minors to go with him to the cane field promising to give them something.

Upon reaching the area, the other boy was asked to stay beside the road while he and the victim went inside the sugarcane field. The eight-year-old boy said he heard his friend cry, prompting him to run away in fear and to rush to the police.

However, the suspect denied his involvement in the killing of the child.