Cebu City―A P1.6-million cash reward awaits anyone who can give information that will lead to the arrest of the killers of 16-year-old church collector Christine Lee Silawan.
SUSPECTS’ SHADOWS. Law enforcement authorities are closing in on three suspects tagged in the monstrous murder Monday of 16-year-old church collector Christine Lee Silawan of Lapu Lapu City, while local government officials and police have offered P1.6 million in exchange for information on the identity and whereabouts of the teener’s killers.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday evening expressed outrage over the gruesome murder.
“These sons of whores killed someone and skinned her face,” the President said, stressing his “revulsion” over the murder, which has triggered calls for the restoration of the death penalty.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza on Wednesday offered P1 million in exchange for information on the identity and whereabouts of Silawan’s killers.
• Silawan died of multiple stab wounds, and experts later found that several of her internal organs were missing.
• The Justice department on Wednesday ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to help solve Silawan’s murder.
“We’ll let the local police take the lead. If they have difficulties, I’ll ask the NBI to come in,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters.
He declined to comment on the calls to reintroduce capital punishment following Silawan’s killing.
Radaza said the city government’s decision to give a reward to any informant was aimed at obtaining additional information that could speed up the resolution of the case.
She said the police were “instructed to resolve the case at the soonest possible time.”
Lapu-Lapu City Police Chief Lemuel Obon said the total cash reward was now P1.6 million after the Police Regional Office 7 in Central Visayas advisory council committed to his office a P100,000 reward, and another P500,000 from a foreigner from Leyte.
Obon, however, said his office had yet to receive the foreigner’s offer, a Don Davis, an American national whom reports said was willing to contribute half a million pesos for the arrest of Silawan’s killers.
“We have not received any communication from him,” Obon said.
On Tuesday, the city police office was the first to offer a reward of P100,000.
Meanwhile, experts from the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in Central Visayas on Wednesday said they found out that the tongue, trachea and esophagus of Silawan were missing.
PNP Crime Laboratory-7 regional director Benjamin Lara said the girl’s right ear was also missing and the tissue surrounding her neck and face were also removed.
The girl suffered 20 stab wounds and around 10 defense or parrying wounds.
Obon said the autopsy report showed that the victim was not raped as her vagina had no lacerations.
He said tracker teams were now hunting three suspects.
Silawan was found dead at a vacant lot in Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Bankal, Lapu-Lapu City on Monday morning, with her face skinned, her skull exposed and her body left naked from the waist down.
The close-circuit television footage the police gathered, as well as the testimony of a deaf-mute, helped probers zero in on three people who might be behind Silawan’s killing.
READ: DepEd condemns murder of Cebu student
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