Justice for Rico Bibanco

(Blogger’s note: Below is a part of a letter dated April 7, 2014, addressed to the provincial prosecutor of the province of Sultan Kudarat. As stated on page 1 of the letter, it is “the result of investigation conducted by Agent GENNADY A. CHIONG of the NBI-Central Mindanao Regional Office, Koronadal City, South Cotabato.” Not included are the contents of pages 1 and 2, which enumerates the names of police officers “recommended for prosecution.” Included are the contents of pages 3 and 4, retyped as they exactly appear in the printed form. In the interest of full disclosure, the victim named in the letter is my second cousin.)

The true cause of death according to the autopsy report

CRIME

Murder, defined and penalized under Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended.

TIME AND PLACE OF THE COMMISSION OF THE CRIME:

October 30, 2013 inside the municipal police station of Senator Ninoy Aquino, Sultan Kudarat Province;

HOW COMMITTED:

On October 30, 2013 at about 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon victim RICO BIBANCO was arrested and conducted to the municipal police station by a team of policemen led by SPO1 Nicolas Celeste, patrol team leader. The victim was reportedly creating trouble in the poblacion and even resisted arrest. He was under the influence of intoxicating liquor.

At the police station, while his case was being processed by the desk officer, the victim went berserk and assaulted the complainant, ANTONIO MORALES, and attempted to choke him. He was subdued by the policemen and placed inside the lock-up cell. A few minutes later, the victim was found dead.

The policemen alleged that after the victim was placed inside the lock up cell he kept banging his head against the iron grills of his cell. They told him to stop and a few minutes later they heard silence and when they went to check on their prisoner they discovered him hanging on the wall with one end of his shirt anchored against the ventilation grill of his cell and the other end tied around his neck. They then photograph [sic] the victim while still hanging on the wall with his shirt around his neck.

But the evidence gathered by Dr. Ricardo Rodaje, NBI Medico Legal Officer, who conducted the autopsy on the cadaver of the victim tells a different story. Based on the injuries found on the victim’s cadaver Dr. Rodaje theorized that the victim was first struck on the head several times with a blunt object causing him to suffer TRAUMATIC HEAD INJURIES and when he fell unconscious they hanged him using a rope or cord with width ranging from 0.5 cm. to 1.4 cm. and to make it appear that he committed suicide they replaced the cord or rope with his shirt. The victim was still alive when he was hanged, thus the cause of his death is: ASPHYXIA BY HANGING; TRAUMATIC HEAD INJURIES.

In the absence of direct testimony we resorted to circumstantial evidence to determine the author of the crime and their motive in killing the victim.

Circumstantial evidence points to the policemen on duty in the police station, at the time of the incident, as the perpetrator of the crime because the victim was under their custody and detained in the police lock-up cell, and they are the only ones who have access to his cell.

But what drove the policemen to kill the victim?

It can be inferred from the evidence gathered (Police Blotter and Spot Report) that the victim was under the influence of intoxicating liquor and even resisted arrest when he was apprehended by the police team led by SPO1 Nicolas Celeste while causing trouble in the Poblacion. He destroyed the personal property of complainant ANTONIO MORALES and when he was already at the police station he disregarded the presence of the policemen and went berserk and assaulted the complainant right infront of the desk officer. He was subdued and brought inside the lock up cell.

His actions infuriated the policemen that they started beating him by hitting him on the head with a blunt object, he tried to parry the attack causing him to sustain hematoma on his left wrist. His attackers were so strong they held him tightly to prevent him from employing any defense, his attacker’s tight grip caused their finger tips to leave a deep mark (hematoma) on his arms.

Thinking that he was already dead they hanged him using a rope and to make it appear that he committed suicide they replaced the rope with the victim’s shirt.. [sic]

The deep marks (hematoma) found on the victim’s arm indicate that one person was holding him while another was hitting him on the head after he fell unconscious they carried his body and hanged it. This act could not be accomplished without the accent [sic] of all the policemen present.

The policemen above-mentioned were on duty at the time of the incident. they [sic] were issued subpoenae duces tecum to explain their side of the controversy to exclude those who were not present at the time of the incident but they all opted not to submit their counter affidavits until the case is filed in the prosecutor’s office, hence all those listed in the duty detail are recommended for prosecution.

In support of our recommendation are the following eveidences, [sic] to wit:

A – Case Assignment Sheet
B – Sworn Complaint Sheet of Virgilio Bibanco
C – Request for investigation
D – SS of Virgilio S. Bibangco [sic]
E – SS of Erna Capulso
F – Death Certificate
G – Autopsy Report No. SARDO No. 2013-11
H – Memorandum of Atty. Angelito Magno for Sr. Supt. Rex Dela Rosa
I – Letter to Chief of Police of SNA, SK
J – Memorandum of OIC, SNA Police Office, SK for Acting Director NBI

A Father’s Plea

(Blogger’s note: What follows is the content of a letter dated June 25, 2014, addressed to Atty. Leila De Lima, secretary of the Department of Justice. In the interest of full disclosure, the victim named in the letter is my second cousin. His mother and my father are first cousins. I had no part in the creation of this letter, and I retyped the text as it exactly appears in the printed form.)

Dear Madame:

I am writing this letter with the hope that I will be accorded with ultimate justice to the death of my son RICO L. BIBANCO, who suffered torture acts and was summarily executed in his cell after being arrested by a team of policemen from the Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, Province of Sultan Kudarat last October 30, 2013. The incident was investigated by NBI authorities of Region XII based in Koronadal City and has submitted their corresponding findings with conclusion that the victim has been intentionally killed based on autopsy report by the NBI who examined and conducted laboratory test to the dead body of the victim.

The case was already filed in the prosecutor’s office of the Province of Sultan Kudarat and there was no immediate action because all of the suspects who are active policemen presently stationed in the Municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, Province of Sultan Kudarat are using delaying tactics to the case and there could be a hidden negotiation for them not to be charged in court.

It is amazing to think that until now the filing of corresponding charges or cases against those involved policemen have not yet been made by the court who has jurisdiction to it and we are now absolutely losing our hope considering the long period of time when the incident happened last year.

In view of the foregoing premise, may I respectfully request for legal assistance from your good office to investigate the case and to charge those involved policemen for the interest of social justice.

Moreover, please allow me to say that I have spent a lot of money and using a lot of efforts believing that I can get a fair justice from the government but there seems to be a lapses [sic] on the part of the court by not speeding the filling [sic] of the case against those involved policemen.

Enclosed herewith are pertinent documents relative to the case.

Praying your favorable action on the matter.

Truly yours,

VIRGELIO S. BIBANCO
Father of the victim

 The lower half of the letter, with the sender’s signature

Treasure Hunting Activities

When I was still in college, I wrote about treasure hunting practices and beliefs, and the piece appeared in the Young Blood column of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. More than eight years since, I found out that some people here in Kulaman Plateau are still as crazy about finding the purportedly lost treasures of General Yamashita. One expedition even has a backhoe at its disposal. Big time! The group must have a wealthy financer.

Let me be blunt about it: I consider such an undertaking foolish, something reasonable people should not do if they care about the future of their family. It’s a big waste of time, money, and even dignity. There is no clear evidence that the Japanese set foot in these boondocks during World War II. Since pre-Spanish time, there was no one here but the indigenous Dulangan Manobo. Outsiders, mostly Ilonggos and Ilocanos, only started to flock here in 1960s and 1970s.

 Treasure hunters use a backhoe to dig a hole. Most diggers in Kulaman
Plateau use shovels, so this particular group probably has a wealthy 
financer. The hole is covered with tarpaulin to hold off gossipmongers.
I’m sorry for the blurry and badly angled photo; I have to take this
covertly because a man in civilian clothes seemed
to be guarding the hole when I passed by.

One illogical thing most of these hunters believe is that the treasure moves. They say that one taboo committed by anyone around could be enough for the chest of gold bars to change location. So the diggers speak in hushed codes, don’t let strangers take a peek at the hole, and walk on tiptoe. OK, I just made up the last one. My point is that excavation is almost like a holy ritual for these people—no dirty jokes and rum drinking at the site. If they know I’m writing this and making light of their life-changing endeavor, they would accuse me of putting a jinx on them. Heck, some of these people might even be homicidal because they’re putting all their resources on the excavation, so I’m not going to specify the locations of existing treasure hunting activities.

Perhaps the only good thing these treasure hunters contribute is that they sometimes stumble on an entirely different kind of treasure. The narrow entrance to the magnificent White Cave of Kuden was first suspected to be a tunnel dug by fleeing Japanese soldiers. A treasure hunter shoveled the dirt and found an immense underground hall of sparkling speleothems. (I wrote a fictional account of discovery in another post.) The clay burial jars of Maitum, Sarangani Province, were also discovered by men searching for treasures in a cave.

My brother and his classmate pose near abandoned holes

by treasure hunters at the top of Ilyan Hill, considered mystical

by the Dulangan Manobo. Many hunters believe that yellow

Chinese bamboos indicate a treasure’s location.

In the same manner, hunters can also destroy valuable archaeological artifacts. In a cave in the village of Tacupis, it is said that there was once a bas-relief of a woman on its wall, and treasure hunters broke the figure to see if the woman had golden internal organs. Kulaman Plateau, having a Karstic topography, is a land of a hundred caves, and who knows what the treasure hunters have been digging or smashing inside them for the past few decades.

And writing this has made me thinking: Perhaps there should be a municipal ordinance banning any form of excavation or at least requiring excavations to seek a permit first. This way, treasure hunters could dig in their backyard or even inside their house to their hearts’ content but caves and other natural treasures—Kulaman’s true treasures—could be protected.

Fiction: Artifacts He Unearthed

During the Silliman University National Writers Workshop last May, my co-fellows and I were asked to create a batch anthology. Our indie book is worth mentioning in this blog because my story in it has got a lot to do with this blog. Here are five fun-for-me facts about the piece:

1. The story is in the form of blog posts.
2. The story is about blog posts that quote blog posts that quote blog posts.
3. I am the main blogger in the story, and I am writing about the blog of my co-fellow Jovy, who wrote about his experiences in Kulaman Plateau and my blog about Kulaman Plateau.
4. I am writing my blog posts in 2017, and Jovy (whom I killed with his permission) wrote his in 2015, and he made references to this very blog that you are reading, written from 2012 up to the present.
5. I call my piece "speculative metanonfiction," but my co-fellow and roommate Reno said it's really a fan fiction of myself.

You may read my story by downloading for free the anthology in the webpage of the writers workshop. Scroll down to the image of the book cover, and click the link right below it.

I won't tell you to enjoy reading my story because I wasn't thinking at all of readers when I wrote it. I was just excited by the fact that, for the first time in a little more than a year, I was writing a new story. I hope to take the part about Jovy in the story and rewrite it in a traditional narrative format in the coming months.

"Arguably the best-produced anthology" was how Sir Ian, coordinator

of Silliman's creative writing center, described our book.

The cover photo, taken by Arkay, shows Pre jumping off a cliff

in Siquijor. Jonggai did the book layout, and Reno wrote the intro.

My goal was to have the longest output among those who wrote

their pieces while in the Writers Village, so my story occupies 20

of the 124 pages of the book. I mentioned my name at least 10 times,

so maybe Reno was right: the story is a fan fiction of myself.

My excuse for including this photo is that I need to show you what

the whole book looks like. This was taken by Mike, alumnus

of the same workshop.

Anthropomorphic Lids

While conducting my personal—and mostly online—research on the Kulaman Plateau limestone burial jars, my vocabulary also expanded. One of the first new words that I learned and that I now regularly use is the adjective anthropomorphic, defined by Merriam-Webster as "described or thought of as having a human form or human attributes." The term is usually used to describe the lids of many of the burial jars, and here now are photos of jar coverings that are anthropomorphic.

The photos in this post were all taken at the University of San Carlos Museum in Cebu City. Most of the figures are crudely carved, and some look more like monkeys than human beings. However, probably out of respect by the authors, none of the academic papers I've read so far states that the lids are simian. Curiously, though, a paper or two describe the lids as "phallic," though I can't identify right now which papers do.

Look closely at the photos at the bottom of this post. The one on the right-hand side is a close-up of the lid of the jar at the left. When I first saw the jar in the museum, I thought to myself that the lid was indeed phallic. But when I looked at it closely, I noticed that tiny holes were bored into it, and the holes resembled a human being's eyes, nostrils, and mouth. I wondered if the lid was just unintentionally phallic.

I also remember now that I read in one academic paper that some of the Kulaman jars have designs that indicate the sex of the deceased interred inside. I'll get back to you on this in future posts. It's interesting to think that the ancient people of Kulaman Plateau had manifestations of their sexuality in their art. They were, after all, human beings like us—living, loving, longing.

The 100th Post: Portraits at the Plateau

At the provincial museum, June 2014

After being gone for a year, I'm back here in Sultan Kudarat Province. This also happens to be my 100th post for this blog. So to mark these occasions, I'm giving you . . . photos of me!

Ha-ha. I'm just being vain, of course. I'm using these lame reasons to turn this blog into a Facebook or Instagram account. Cut me some slack, though. I let 99 posts pass before doing this. If you have noticed, aside from the About Me page, I don't have a photo of me anywhere in this blog. I did it on purpose. I wanted to post here as few personal stuff as possible. Also, whenever I wrote about something, I would choose only the most relevant or best-looking photos to accompany the text, and normally there would only be three to five photos. My selfies never made the cut.

Next to vanity, my purpose in posting my photos is to show you proofs that I have really been to the spots that I have featured in this blog. So one photo below is of me in the White Cave, in Sitio Siokong, Barangay Kuden, Senator Ninoy Aquino. Another one shows me at the top of Ilyan Hill. The photo has an accompanying one-minute video in another post, and I've written about the hill when I had not yet climbed it.

Inside the White Cave, March 2013

At the peak of Ilyan Hill, March 2013

A Glimpse of White Cave

No, this is not a gooey baby alien. This very hard rock

is a chunk of a speleothem from the White Cave of Kulaman. 

I visited the provincial museum last week to see the limestone burial jar that I had heard was on display there. To my surprise, the jar was not the only item in the museum that came from Kulaman Plateau. The bare collection also included a chunk of speleothem from the White Cave in Sitio Siokong, Barangay Kuden.

When the staff pointed the smooth white rock to me and said it was from a cave in the municipality of Senator Ninoy Aquino, I was appalled. Tourists aren't supposed to touch the stone formations in the cave, much less take a chunk and bring it home. But since the deed has been done, I guess there's no point going ballistic over it. I just hope that (1) the rock was taken out of the cave for the sole purpose of displaying it in the museum, (2) no other rock has been taken out of the cave, (3) a similar thing will not happen in the future.

I noticed that the piece of speleothem looked different when shone upon by sunlight. It was slightly translucent. Inside the cave, where only flashlights and similar devices could be used, the stalactites, stalagmites, and other limestone formations looked solid. Artificial light seemed to bounce off the smooth surface.

The provincial museum, which also serves

as the local tourism office, is at the back

of the capitol, about 30 meters away.