Kin of PCG trainee seek new autopsy

The family of Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) trainee Dharryll Mojica, who was reportedly electrocuted on board a government ship in September, wants another autopsy of his body, hoping that it would shed light on his death, but broken laboratory machines are delaying the procedure.

Mojica’s mother Arlene said she had been waiting for the results of the reautopsy being conducted by the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in Camp Crame since last week. “We were told that their machines were broken. I don’t know what kind of machines,” she said in a phone interview on Friday.

The new body examination was prompted by the family’s doubts on the PCG’s findings that Mojica, 23, figured in an accident when he leaned on an electrical outlet near the shower room on Sept. 25. He died two days later in a hospital.

Doctors at Philippine General Hospital had said Dharryll “died of drowning and electrical injuries” and that 2 liters of water were extracted from his lungs.

The family, who lives in Indang town, Cavite province, sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation in October to conduct another probe. Arlene said a reautopsy report was needed for the investigation to move forward.

She said the family might consult a private forensics expert, given the delay in the reautopsy.

Mojica was supposed to have graduated from the PCG nonofficers’ course on Oct. 28. Days before his death, he had sent a text message to a relative that he was expecting “punishment” for returning late to the training ship, the BRP San Juan.

He had also told his family that he was subjected to electric shocks and water boarding as punishment during the training, Arlene said.

His classmates were on break after the class graduation and could not be interviewed by the NBI. The San Juan has not yet returned to Manila for inspection from Palawan province.

Although not directly handling the case, Supt. Roy Camarillo, a police medico-legal officer in the Calabarzon region, said machines were needed for certain reautopsy tests, such as a histopath examination (on human organs) or toxicology test (on hair or blood samples).

Exhumation is also possible, as long as the body has not yet decomposed, he said.