Boy, 12, killed in Daanbantayan

CEBU, Philippines - A 12-year-old boy, believed to have been murdered, was found dead, his hands and feet hogtied, in Barangay Logon, Daanbantayan last Tuesday noon.

Victim John David Diano, a Grade 8 pupil of Logon National High School, had been missing for two days when his decomposing body was found in a secluded area in sitio Cabatangan.

The police could not determine if there were open wounds in the body pending the result of the autopsy by the medico-legal officer of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory-7.

The boy has been declared missing since Sunday. In fact, flyers were posted along the road with the photo of the boy, said Police Officer 3 Raymon Pepito, the case investigator.

It was Henry Rosales, a barangay tanod, who found the naked body of Diano lying in supine position when he traced the origin of a foul smell coming from a grassy portion of the area.

Rosales realized that the boy was the same one who was in the flyers.

Diano’s T-shirt was used in tying both of his hands from behind, his shorts used to tie his feet, and his underwear was inserted into his mouth to probably stop the boy from shouting, said Pepito.

Diano was last seen on Sunday when he was reportedly asked by his mother to throw garbage nearby. He failed to return home that day.

It was also allegedly the same time when he was seen climbing on a talisay tree, about 200 meters from where his body was discovered.

“Sukad adto wala na ni kit-i ning bataa nga gisugo ra unta ni’g palabay og basura unya kadtong nakit-an ni siya ibabaw sa kahoy, naghinuktok ra kuno ni,” Pepito said.

Diano was described as a silent boy.

Yesterday noon, police took into custody Alberto Hermosa, 28, a relative of Diano whom a witness positively identified as the one who killed the boy.

Hermosa was attending the boy’s wake at the Lady of the Rule Chapel when policemen led by Police Officer 3 Israelito Aballe approached and brought him to the police station.

A brother-in-law of Diano, who is a deaf-mute, reportedly witnessed Hermosa struck Diano’s head with a wood and then carried him.— (FREEMAN)