Unsolved Rape Case

Whenever the subject of the dead comes up, people usually equate it with the past. It is quite obvious given that people who have died naturally belong to a time that is, for the most part, over and done with.            

  And yet, there is also such a thing as unfinished business. Anything that the dead left hanging naturally falls under this category. It is not so much the tasks that have yet to be completed as the visions that have not materialized as a result.            

  One prominent person who did not quite make it at the time he bade goodbye to his earthly sojourn. The closest that Moses got to the Promise Land was a glimpse of the land of milk honey. It was one promise Moses never got to fulfill.            

  There is one unfinished business however that loved ones of the departed intend to put behind them – justice. While others choose to forgive even though they cannot forget, others are forever haunted by the unsolved killings.            

  Such is the story of Vivian Dumaluan, a girl who has become greater in death than she was in life. An incoming high school senior, Vivian had dreamed of at least finishing secondary education by the only way she knew how – as a nanny.            

  One day, she went out of the house owned by the family she thought would be her ticket to graduation. When she left the home of Engr. Teofredo “Pingmay” Dumaluan on April 27, 2004, she had no inkling that she would not return.            

  Two days later, Vivian’s decomposing body was found 50 meters from the staff house of the Dumaluan Beach Resort. Vivian had been raped before she was killed and eventually dumped near the resort.            

  The search for justice for Vivian’s rape and murder is more than your typical whodunit brain-twister. If the prosecution is to be believed, Vivian’s rape and killing was a plot hatched to generate sympathy during the 2004 campaign.            

  Based on the confession executed by Alex Dasco, the prosecution’s star witness, former Panglao Mayor Doloreich Dumaluan masterminded the plan which was executed by his brother Pingmay, Romeo Lapinig, Narciso Maghamil and Dasco himself who admitted he held Vivian’s hands while the three raped her.            

  The prosecution’s theory however was disregarded by three of the four members of the panel created by the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor. They instead filed the rape with homicide case against Maghamil and Dasco while dropping the charges against the Dumaluan brothers and Maghamil.            

  While the opposing counsels raise their arguments, Vivian’s family can only shake their heads in bewilderment. To this day, justice for her has remained elusive.            

  It is a lonely cause, far from over. Vivian’s death should not be in vain. – Editorial, Sunday Post