IBP offers legal aid for prosecution of suspect in Lapu-Lapu schoolgirl slay

MANILA, Philippines — The Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu chapter said on Wednesday that they are ready to lend legal assistance in prosecuting the suspects in the gruesome murder of a student in Lapu-Lapu City.

The lawyers’ group said that if “given the chance [they] will provide legal assistance to aid in the prosecution of the culprits to the vicious crime when caught.”

The IBP chapter also called on witnesses to come forward and shed light on the case to resolve the “dastardly act.”

“The brutal killing of the teenage girl in Lapu-Lapu is an act of pure evil and we call upon our authorities to catch the monster/s responsible,” they added.

The lifeless body of the16-year-old, who was coming home from collecting tithes for the Sunday mass, was found at a vacant lot in Cebu. She was found half-naked and had multiple stab wounds.

Her head was reportedly skinned to the skull and a medico-legal on Wednesday found that some internal organs of the girl are missing.

Lapu-Lapu City Police Director Senior Superintendent Lemuel Obon said they already identified the suspects in the slay of the Grade Nine student, but refused to divulge the identities of the perpetrators who remain at large.

The gruesome crime revived the calls for death penalty, but Gabriela Women’s Party cautioned against it.

“Quickly resorting to the harshest penalty as solution glosses over the inadequacies of the justice system,” the group said.

The capital punishment was abolished in 1987, a year after the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It was, however, reinstated in 1993 under the administration of former President Fidel Ramos.

Death penalty was suspended in 2006, during the leadership of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but President Rodrigo Duterte is pushing for its reimposition.

Laws are however not retroactive.