On bodies found in Palawan: DNA tests undertaken to confirm identities

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — Senior Superintendent Mariano Natuel Jr., director of the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office, said the Palawan Provincial Police on Tuesday took samples from the cadavers of a male and a female found in a motor banca, over the weekend in that province, for DNA tests for identification verification.

The bodies of the two, were initially identified as those of Bradley Jay Fugate, a 44-year-old American, and his girlfriend Cristina Andig, 19, who were among the six who went missing more than two weeks ago since sailing off Siaton, Negros Oriental in a small motor banca to go tuna fishing.

Fugate, a chemist from California, U.S.A., temporarily resided in Camanjac, Dumaguete City and was reportedly engaged to Cristina, of Barangay Maloh in Siaton. The two, along with her brother Roseldo Andig, and Jovie Fundador, Rey Tamondoc Benetes and Elmer Sabroso, left Maloh on February 13 and were never heard of since then.

Natuel said the United States Embassy has requested for laboratory tests on the male corpse to determine if it was that of Fugate. He explained U.S. authorities were very cautious in their investigation and would only confirm if that male cadaver was indeed that of Fugate, based on “scientific findings.”

The Palawan PNP, headed by its provincial director Supt. Benjamin Acorda, Jr., and accompanied by Scene of the Crime Operatives, took a Philippine Air Force helicopter to Barangay Mangsee in Balabac town of the province to conduct the extraction of samples for DNA testing.

The team, believed to be joined by operatives of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, exhumed the bodies from the Mangsee Christian Cemetery and took DNA samples for testing. The bodies, already in an advanced state of decomposition, were buried again afterwards.

Natuel said Acorda informed him the Palawan needed to confirm the identities of the two bodies, found by a fisherman in Mangsee, and to investigate further the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Autopsy results and forensic exams, such as DNA testing, could take time, said Natuel as he advised the family of Andig in Siaton to wait for the lab results before they decide to go to Balabac in Palawan.

The Dumaguete Coast Guard Station, quoting its counterpart in Mangsee, told The FREEMAN that the motor banca found Saturday was intact, except fot its engine that was missing.

Ensign Cecille Romero Jimenez, chief of the Dumaguete CGS, after having spoken to SN2 Kenny Fonseco of the Mangsee Coast Guard sub-station, said the banca, painted white on top and blue on the bottom, matched the description of the one that Fugate and company took on their tuna fishing trip.

Quoting Fonseco, Jimenez said the male and female decomposed cadavers were immediately buried. Both had ropes tied around them, apparently to keep them from falling over the banca. The male was lying on one end of the banca while the female was on the opposite end.

The description of the clothes they were wearing, however, did not match the initial information that the Dumaguete CGS had received, Fonseco said, adding that among the items recovered from the banca were an iPad, a cellular phone, two flashlights, a pocket wi-fi, a black backpack, a ladies’ green bag, and fishing paraphernalia.

Earlier reports from the police also said a wallet with Fugate’s ID cards in it was recovered as well in the motor banca that was filled with water almost to the brim. All the items were turned over to the SOCO, Fonseco told Jimenez via satellite phone Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the family of Cristina and her brother Roseldo, and of the other three missing persons have appealed for help from the government in letting them go to Balabac in Palawan. They told TV networks here that it pained them to be offering prayers for their “dead” without the bodies lying in wake. (FREEMAN)