6-year-old girl killed, dumped in Manila; cops suspect rape

MANILA, Philippines — The body of a six-year old girl was found naked from the waist down in a dark and grassy area near the old Philippine National Railways (PNR) station in Paco, Manila, Monday morning.

Investigators of the Manila Police District (MPD) said the girl might have been raped based on the injuries her body sustained.  The police also found blood splatters on the leaves and grass near the crime scene.

Ramon Sus, a village watchman, told the police that he found the girl’s body in front of the PNR station along President Quirino Avenue, Plaza Dilao, Paco, Manila at around 12:30 a.m. while he was patrolling at the area.

The watchman told investigators that he first spotted the victim’s denim pants, which led him to her body a few meters away.

“At first, I thought I was just looking at clothes left behind by some people but when I examined closer, I discovered that it was a body of a little girl,” the village watchman told the police in his statement.

His discovery prompted Sus to report the discovery of the body to a nearby police station and officers immediately went to the crime scene.

According to a report, the police found the victim lying on her back, wearing only a blue undershirt. Senior Police Officer 3 Glenzor Vallejo of the MPD homicide division also said that the suspect could have pressed the child’s face to the ground to suffocate her to death.

The identity of the child became known to investigators when her mother showed up at the MPD Headquarters in Ermita, Manila hours after the discovery of the victim’s body. Elizabeth Balolong, 38, of Barangay (village) 872, Pandacan, positively identified the body at the funeral parlor as that of her missing daughter.

Balolong said she last saw her child at around 10 p.m. on Sunday near a store located beside their house. The mother thought her daughter was just playing around but 30 minutes after, Balolong said that they could not find her anywhere in their village.

Witnesses told the police that they saw an apparently drunk man walking near the crime scene at around midnight. They claimed that he even asked for directions on how to go to Pandacan from passers-by.