Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu. AP FILE PHOTO
COTABATO CITY—Maguindanao Gov. Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu has offered a P100,000-reward money for anyone who can provide information that could lead to the arrest of at least five other suspects in the rape-slay of a 15-year-old working student in Buluan, Maguindanao.
READ: 3 in gang-rape of 15-yr-old girl in Maguindanao arrested
Last Tuesday, police authorities in Buluan announced the arrest of three persons, who were among the suspects in the September 5 gang-rape and brutal killing of Bainora Solaiman, who worked as helper at the canteen of the Mahad National High School in the said town to support her studies.
Senior Insp. Victor Pansoy, Buluan town police chief, said witnesses had positively identified Puwa Salendab, Fahad Kalipapa and Dayan Makaton, all residents of Buluan, as among those seen inside the school canteen before it was razed. Two of them were found positive of drug use when tested.
All of the arrested suspects denied participation in the crime, he said. However, witnesses have claimed otherwise, Pansoy added.
Solaiman’s partially charred and dismembered body was found inside the razed facility shortly after the fire.
He said the police had theorized that the suspects deliberately burned the canteen to cover up their crime.
Mangudadatu said he was offering the reward to fast track the solving of the crime, which shocked Buluan because its nature was previously unheard of in the whole of Maguindanao.
“I promised to the victim’s family we will do our best to give Bainora the justice she deserved, we need the cooperation of anybody who have information about the remaining four suspects,” Mangudadatu told reporters.
Those who knew her remember Solaiman, a resident of Datu Paglas, Maguindanao, as a quiet but hardworking and intelligent girl.
Because her parents were farmers—who were so poor they can’t even send her to school—the girl took a job at the school’s canteen to support her studies.
During classes, she stayed with a relative in Poblacion, Buluan—which is about 17 kilometers from home—to save on fare. Edwin Fernandez/RAM