P100 thousand reward offered  for info on girl’s killers

CEBU, Philippines — Talisay City Mayor Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas said the city is offering P100,000 to anyone who can give verified information on the culprits in the killing of a 10-year-old girl from this city.

The decomposing body of Kiara Mae Namanama was found covered with rocks inside a cave in Sitio Napo, Barangay Tapul on January 9, three days after she had gone missing.

“The City of Talisay will offer a P100,000 reward to anyone who can give information that will lead to the arrest of the people behind this evil act. The information has to be verified by the police. So please text or call them directly. The number is 09154347162,” Gullas said in a post.

Gullas also urged the culprits to surrender as the police will hunt them down.

“We cannot let this deed go unpunished. I have ordered our police chief, Lt. Col. Randy Caballes, to conduct a massive manhunt operation against those behind Kiara’s abduction and murder,” he said.

Four suspects

Caballes said some people who were taking a bath at a nearby river allegedly saw four men -- believed to be behind the murder -- near the cave where the body was discovered.

Additional witnesses are being traced to corroborate these claims.

The problem, though, is that the witnesses could not remember the physical features of the four.

“Wala sad nila nadumdoman ang nawong, wala sila kaila, so wa gyud tay identity anang upat. Ang ato lang, upat atong gipangita nga suspects karon,” said Caballes.

Caballes added that an autopsy was conducted to determine if the girl was raped.

“Naghuwat pa ta sa result kay sa pagkakaron, dili pa ta makaingon nga gi-rape gyud ni siya,” he said.

Caballes said that when the victim was retrieved from the cave, she still had her clothes on. There were also no visible wounds on her body, although it was already in a state of decomposition.

Given the condition of the body, Caballes said it was possible that the girl was killed three days earlier, which was the same day she was reported missing.

Cry for justice

At the City Hall yesterday, Kiara’s mother, Cirila Namanama, 47, said her child had asked permission to go with her older sibling to take a bath in the river on January 6.

The mother, who was then washing the family’s clothes dirtied after Typhoon Odette, obliged.

Little did she know that it would be the last time she would see her daughter alive.

Thinking that Kiara might have been taken by “dili ingon nato” or bad elements, the family spent all night long looking for the child but to no avail.

After three days, the smell of rotten flesh and the presence of flies led the searching team to the cave where the body was found.

Cirila, in between sobs, said her family could not have minded losing their home to the typhoon as long as her family was alive and complete.

She said Kiara had many dreams, including lifting her family from poverty. Sadly, that dream is now dashed by her brutal death. — Iris Hazel M. Mascardo, and Rowena D. Capistrano, JMD (FREEMAN)