Dead 7-month-old fetus buried in river

CEBU, Philippines - A seven-month old dead fetus was found buried along the river bank along General Echavez Avenue, Barangay Zapatera, Cebu City Tuesday evening.

Barangay tanod Rogelio Quiroga said they received a phone call at 9:45 a.m. from a concerned citizen informing him about three men burying a dead fetus along the creek around 8 p.m.

The informant, he said, did not reveal his identity.

Quiroga said he immediately sought for police assistance when they saw the dead fetus inside a carton box.

“Among gikawot ang maong area. Gitabonan sa bato ug bas ang karton nga gi-tape. Pag-ukab namo, nakit-an namo ang fetus,” he narrated.

Elements of the Cebu City Police Office Homicide Section composed of Senior Police Officer 4 Alex Dacua and Police Officers 1 Michael Angelo Singson, John Errick Samosa and Reoful Adalim responded to the area at around 10:20 p.m.

Initial investigation revealed that 52-year-old Claros Perales, who was among the three men who buried the fetus, was the father of the baby.

Perales said he could not give his child proper funeral services due to financial constraints so that he decided to bury the baby boy along the creek.

He admitted that he asked for the assistance from his two neighbors to do the burial.

“Wala man ko ikabayad sa pari ug sa pagpalubong sa bata tungod sa kalisod. Mahal man ang bayad sa men-teryo mao diri na lang nako gilubong,” he said.

Perales works as a backup messenger while Doris Manatad, the mother of the baby, is a plain housewife. Both are from sitio Caimito, Barangay Lorega-San Miguel.

According to Perales, he did not commit any violation since the baby was already dead inside the mother’s stomach. The death certificate of the baby showed that the cause of death was intrauterine fetal demise secondary to cord accident.

“Wa ko maghuna-huna nga duna’y violation. Ang akoa kay mahipos dayon aron di mabaho. Wala ko’y violation sa gibuhat nako sa akong anak kay patay na siya daan,” he explained.

He was arrested while his two neighbors remain at large.

The baby was supposedly the eighth child of the couple. — (FREEMAN)