Pedicab driver admits killing 11-yr-old Los Baños girl

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna, Philippines—An 11-year-old girl was found dead in the university town of Los Baños in Laguna, more than two weeks after her family put out her missing posters around the town.

The pedicab driver, who initially came forward to report finding the girl’s body, confessed to killing the girl in a failed attempt to rape her.

Henry Hipolito, 25, was provided legal counsel. He is now the main suspect in the killing of Marry Grace Esguerra, a Grade 3 public school pupil who went missing on March 1 until her decomposing body was discovered at around 5 p.m. in Villa Carangal Subdivision in Barangay Putho Tuntungin on Thursday noon.

In a phone interview early on Friday, Marry Grace’s sister, Monica, 21, said she last saw Marry Grace at around 11 p.m. on March 1 when she sent her off to ride home in a jeepney.

Monica said Marry Grace, the sixth in the brood of 12, sold peanuts at night to help augment the family income. Their father sells “halo-halo” outside the University of the Philippines Los Baños campus.

She said Mary Grace was used to going home alone by taking a jeep and a rickshaw to reach their house at the Gawad Kalinga housing project site in Barangay Putho Tuntungin.

Hipolito came forward to the police on Thursday and reported that he found a child’s body, Monica said. At the police station, the driver gave a statement that he also dropped off Mary Grace near their house on March 1 but said he saw her hop on a motorcycle with a man, instead of going home.

Monica, however, found the driver’s story incredible. “The one who’s claiming he brought my sister home was the same person who discovered her body,” she said.

Mary Grace’s death quickly reminded the university community of the past killings.

“(Mary Grace’s death happened almost at) the same time of the year…Despite the ‘heightened security,’ why does it feel like nothing has changed?” wrote student and filmmaker Matt Baguinon on Facebook.

Baguinon late last year made a short film about Rochel Geronda, a high school student who was raped and killed in February 2012, just days before UPLB student Ray Bernard Peñaranda was killed by robbers. A few months earlier, UPLB student Given Grace Cebanico was raped and killed in October 2011.

Women’s group Gabriela Youth-UPLB, which circulated public announcements on Facebook upon learning about the missing child, also condemned the new case of killing.

“It seemed the tighter security (provided by the local authorities) vanished just as the issues died down,” said its externals committee head, Trixia Leigh Pacris, by phone.

There was also a supposed 10 p.m. curfew for minors in Los Bańos.