Divers resume their search today for the body of Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Boniel as a body found in Escalante City turned out to be that of another woman.
(CDN FILE PHOTO)
Results of a forensic examination done on the body discovered in the seas of Escalante City, Negros Occidental, ruled out the possibility that the body was that of Bien Unido Mayor Gisela Bendong- Boniel.
Chief Insp. Rollie Poldevilla, Escalante City Police Station chief, said the decomposing body of a woman wrapped in a fishing net found in the city was that of a native of Calatrava town in Escalante City.
The forensic examination done by the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) showed no traces of a gunshot wound, Poldevilla said.
“Wala’y samad sa bala iyahang lawas. Nalumos siya. Mao iyahang gikamatyan,” Poldevilla said.
(The body does not have any gun shot wound. She drowned.)
He also said that the finger prints matched that of a 64-year-old woman named Laureta Cabag.
Poldevilla said the victim’s family members from Calatrava had already claimed the body.
“Nianhi iyahang (Cabag) family and ang family ni Mayor Gisela. Ang family ni mayor nga naa sa Bohol mismo niingon dili to siya (Gisela),” Poldevilla said.
(The Cabag family and Mayor Gisela’s relatives came here. Gisela’s family said it was definitely not the body of Gisela.)
Poldevilla likewise affirmed that the remains were that of an elderly woman. Gisela was 40 years old.
Speculations were rife that the body was that of Gisela because witnesses to her alleged murder had claimed that she was wrapped in a fishing net, tied with a rope and weighed down by a rock when her body was dumped into the sea between Cebu and Bohol last June 7.
According to Poldevilla, Cabag was reported missing on June 28.
“Mag-uuma ni siya. Sa atong imbestigasiyon, pagkahuman niya og uma nilabang ni siya og sapa. Didto siya naanod ug nalumos,” Poldevilla said.
(She was a farmer. Investigation showed that after she tended the fields, she crossed a river and was carried away by the current.)
Cabag’s body was found by a fisherman in Cebu waters, off the coastal village of Maravilla in Tabuelan town in southern Cebu but he could not contact any Cebu Official so he decided to call instead the Bantay Dagat in Escalante, a coastal city in Negros Island facing Tabuelan.
The Bantay Dagat then towed the body to the shore of Escalante. Hours later, Cabag’s family came to claim her body.
Meanwhile, the search for Gisela’s body will continue today, said Lapu-Lapu City Police Director, Senior Supt. Rommel Cabagnot.
Divers will scour the waters in the Olango Channel.
“Ato lang sab g’yud tan-awon diri gipadulngan sa water current sa norte kay nahuman na man ta did to sa giingon no Etad nga ilang gilabayan,” said Cabagnot.
(We will search the northern part towards the direction of the current as we already searched the area where the witnesses said they threw the body.).
The PNP Maritime group and the Philippine Navy will assist in the search and use their Side Scan SONAR for the deep portions of the sea.
Chief Insp. Jacinto Mandal, Station Commander of Mabolo Police Station, who is also a technical diver will lead the divers and draw up a systematic search plan.