Suspected shoplifter’s family sues medical examiner

The family of the suspected shoplifter, who was fatally mauled by department store security guards, yesterday filed criminal and administrative complaints against a police medical examiner as their quest for justice begins to formally roll out.

Accompanied by lawyer Wendell Quiban, Fe Soledad Ducayag and her daughter Marie Shantylle went to the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office yesterday afternoon to file the complaint accusing Senior Supt. Nestor Sator, medico-legal officer of the PNP Crime Laboratory in Central Visayas of obstruction of justice and falsifying a medical certificate.

The surviving kin of Mario Alfie Ducayag also filed an administrative complaint against Sator before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas for grave misconduct, conduct unbecoming of a public officer, as well as a violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Sator, who underwent special training on forensic medicine at Camp Crame several years back, is also facing a complaint for medical malpractice and unethical conduct before the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC). Atty. Quiban said they want the PRC to revoke Sator’s medical license.

The victim’s mother said justice would have been difficult to chase if they simply relied on Sator’s findings. “Had there been no re-autopsy on the corpse of my son, justice would have been buried with him, the truth would have decomposed inside his coffin,” she said.

In a phone interview yesterday, Sator said he’s ready to face the charges filed against him. “I’ll answer the accusations against me. As far as I’m concerned, I only reported what I saw during the autopsy. Do I have to record something which I did not see?,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Based on Satur’s examination, the suspected shoplifter died of “asphyxia due to bleeding pulmonary tuberculosis.”

But Dr. Rene Cam, medico-legal officer of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Central Visayas, and Dr. Gil Macato who conducted a re-autopsy on Ducayag’s body upon the request of his family, said the victim died due to “traumatic neck injuries.”

They said two of the seven cervical vertebra on Ducayag’s nape were dislocated, apart from a collapsed left lung as well as bruised palms, right shoulder, back, and chest.

Sator, however, explained that there’s a possibility that something might have triggered the lung ailment to activate. “I did my best to explain to the family my findings. I told them that I saw injuries and that they could even file a complaint against the security guards because the incident happened inside the establishment,” he said.

Sator said his autopsy report was intended to support the investigation done by the police on Ducayag’s death.

When asked if there was a foul play in Ducayag’s death, he said it’s up to the investigators to determine that. “One of the possibilities was that there was a commotion that transpired due to the presence of injuries on Ducayag’s body. But for me, it is the (police) investigators who have the final say on what really happened to Ducayag,” he said. He said he has been the PNP-7’s medico-legal officer since 1990 and that this was his first time to face charges over an autopsy he conducted.

‘I don’t take sides’
“I’m fair. I don’t take sides. We’re dealing with evidence and all I want is for truth to come out,” Sator said.

In her complaint-affidavit, the victim’s mother said there were notable discrepancies between the findings of Sator and the two medico-legal officers of the NBI.

She said her son didn’t have any tuberculosis and that the visible bruises on the latter’s body would easily reveal that Ducayag was mauled.

“The glaring rectangular contusion on my son’s right anterior chest is too clear to be left unnoticed.

The said contusion does not require a microscopic examination to be detected because it is very visible to the naked eye,” Fe Soledad said.

“The injury was enough to alarm Dr. Sator of the presence of foul play, but unfortunately, he indicated the nature of my son’s (death) as “pathological” which means that my son died of sickness,” she added.

Fe Soledad said the head of her son was “plaint or could not hold in place due to the cervical vertebrae dislocation.” However, Sator reported that “no injuries are noted and no signs of strangulation at the neck nor fractures at the cervical vertebrae.”

Also, Fe Soledad said Sator’s autopsy report only indicated dark consolidation at the lower lobes of the lungs while the NBI-s findings showed that both lungs of the victim were “congested and contused in the middle and lower lobes.”

The injuries which Sator saw were labelled as “erythema” by the PNP medico-legal officer, she said. However, Cam described the injuries as “contusions and abrasions.”

As explained by Dr. Gil Macato, former NBI medico-legal officer, erythema means reddening of the skin usually caused by slight spanking, scratching, and rubbing of the skin or exposure to sunlight. The reddening is merely superficial.

On the other hand, contusions are reddish to purplish discoloration on the body usually caused by blunt force trauma or forceful contact of the body using any hard object causing rupture of small blood vessels.

Similarly, abrasions results from a forceful contact of the body against any rough surface.

Fe Soledad said Sator’s autopsy report could not support a criminal complaint against those who are responsible for her son’s death.

“Dr. Sator indicated in his report that the cause of my son’s death was asphyxia due to bleeding pulmonary tuberculosis. In layman’s language, my son died a natural death. (But) the ordeal of my son is too frightening to go unpunished,” she said.

Macato, who assisted Cam during the re-autopsy on Ducayag’s body, executed an affidavit to corroborate Fe Soledad’s claims.

Cam earlier explained that Ducayag’s neck was possibly hyperextended, which caused the dislocation of two of the seven cervical vertebrae.

“There was sufficient force applied at the back of the neck. A person will die if the cervical vertebrae is dislocated,” he said.

Cam said Sator failed to see the dislocation of the cervical vertebrae when the latter conducted an autopsy. Ducayag was believed to have been mauled by security officers inside the investigation room of Gaisano Metro Colon after he was allegedly caught on CCTV stealing a pair of sandals last April 12.

Being investigated are chief security Mauricio Doblados, security guard Arnel Tanudra, confidential intelligence officers Cesar Celerio and Melvin Boyles, and security camera operator Jeffrey Aquino.

The chief security officer earlier said that Ducayag had a seizure while he was being questioned for the alleged shoplifting incident.

But Doblados eventually admitted that he lied and that Ducayag was actually mauled by Aquino, the CCTV camera operator.

Aquino was arrested by police last Sunday but he was released a day after upon the request of Ducayag’s family who wanted the NBI to conduct the investigation instead of the PNP.

The arrest done by the police was also criticized by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines for being improper.

In an interview, Aquino said it was Doblados who mauled the victim.
Thelma Chiong, national vice president of the Crusade Against Violenc
e, said they will help Ducayag’s family in seeking justice.
“It’s not easy to lose a child. It would be a double whammy if someone makes a fool out of you in the course of the investigation” said Chiong whose two daughters Jacqueline and Marijoy Chiong were kidnapped and killed in 1997.

The Cebu Provincial Government also promised to extend help to the victim’s family.

Acting Governor Agnes Magpale told reporters that she will instruct the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) to visit the Ducayag family to check on their condition. The victim left behind a wife and two children aged three and one.

Magpale said, as the chairman of the Provincial Womens and Children Commission and also as a mother, “I sympathize with the family’s loss.”

“Ang PSWDO mu-assess sa kahimtang sa pamilya ug mu-facilitate usab sa gikinahanglan sa nahibilin nga pamilya labi na sa mga anak niini” the acting governor said.

(The PSWDO will assess the family’s condition and facilitate the provision of their needs especially that of the children.) /with Renan Alangilan