A terrified security guard called the police when he saw a rectangular white object floating off the shore near the Vistamar Subdivision in Barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City yesterday morning.
What did Edwin Marintes see that scared him to death? A two-foot-long coffin.
Marintes said he was patrolling near the shore when he saw the coffin. He said he immediately called the Mactan Police Station thinking that there was a cadaver inside the coffin.
Police checked the coffin and found a red baby shirt, a diaper with blood stains and an empty can of white paint.
A follow-up investigation traced Cristilita Gabato, 30, as the owner of the coffin.
Gabato said the coffin was for her nine-month-old daughter who died last June 10 due to complications from measles.
Gabato told police that the coffin was donated by a politician but as it was too small, they had to replace it with a bigger one.
Gabato’s live-in partner Benjie Maloloy-on, 32, a crewman of a motorized banca, said he brought the coffin to the shore to burn it, saying it was inappropriate to return the coffin.
Maloloy-on said he left the coffin on top of a rock when he went back to the house to get matches.
Maloloy-on said he was unable to locate the coffin when returned about 30 minutes later.
The man decided to go home to attend the burial of his daughter not knowing that the coffin had been washed to sea.