INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — A 28-year-old female architect was found dead in a ditch at a banana plantation in the Calinan District here on Wednesday morning, according to Maj. Catherine dela Rey, Davao City Police Office spokesperson.
The body of Vlanche Marie Bragas was found lying face down under dried banana fronds in an open ditch at the Subasta Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Agricultural Cooperative (SARBAC) banana plantation in Purok 6, Barangay Dacudao, at around 8 a.m.
Bragas, a resident of Purok 18, Megavilla, Calinan Poblacion, was reported missing at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday. She was last seen aboard a yellow pedicab, locally known as “ombak,” at Crossing Fausta, also in Calinan.
Dela Rey told the Inquirer in a text message that the Bragas’s pants and underwear were down when the body was found, indicating a possible sexual assault.
Brig. General Alden Delvo, chief of the Davao Police Regional Office, has ordered the local police to investigate even as he expressed alarm over the high cases of rape in the region.
Of the 128 rape cases reported in Southern Mindanao for the first four months this year, Davao City had the highest with 35.
The number is lower compared to the same period last year, which recorded 172 rapes across the Davao Region.