Medico-legal officer dumps "ungo" angle

CEBU, Philippines - The 10-day-old baby who was believed to have been killed by a monster or “ungo” died of aspiration pneumonia as the autopsy result revealed, Dr. Joe Martin Fuentes said.

Fuentes, the medico-legal officer of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory, claimed that the right lung of the baby had fluids which he suspected came from the milk he had drank before he went to sleep.

“Binuksan natin ‘yung body at nakita nga natin na may aspiration pneumonia ‘yung bata at affected ang lung niya,” Fuentes said.

Fuentes said aspiration pneumonia happens when the baby regurgitates, which means that whatever the baby drinks or eats flows back from the stomach to the lungs, or out of the mouth.

“Baka pagkatapos niyang uminom ng gatas hindi muna nag-burp at pinatulog kaagad kaya ‘yung fluid bumalik o nag-back flow,” he said in a phone interview.

The medico-legal officer also clarified that what was seen as blood on the baby’s umbilical cord was not really blood but the fluid from the boy’s body released through a cut on his umbilical cord.

The boy was found dead at home in sitio Magay, barangay Tanke, Talisay City at around 5:30 a.m. on Monday and family and neighbors suspected he was killed by a monster or “ungo.”   

Virgil Abarquez reportedly first saw blood stains on the kitchen floor and lavatory at around the same time which prompted him to wake up Kimberly Malacay, 20, mother of the child.

But when they went to the living room where she and her husband Joylie and their two children were sleeping, she noticed blood on her youngest son’s nose.

She then checked the child and discovered he was unconscious.

The couple then asked for assistance from their aunt, Cristita Mabala, who rushed the child to the Talisay City District Hospital, where a doctor declared the boy dead.

However, the police have yet to determine where the bloodstains on the roof of the house came from. (FREEMAN)