Even if President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the killing of the suspect in the rape-slay case of an eight-year-old girl in Quezon Province, the Palace said the death of the alleged rapist inside a municipal police station should still be probed.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the death of Ricardo Bongalon Burce, 55, inside the custodial facility of the municipal police station in Candelaria, Quezon Wednesday morning should be investigated, adding the President’s order was not linked to the suspect’s demise.
“No, I don’t think so. That should be investigated,” Panelo said.
Burce was the suspect in the rape and murder of the girl who had gone missing for a week and was later found in a grassy area of a subdivision in Barangay Masin Sur on Jan. 6.
His death came two days after the President ordered police to kill the suspect involved in the rape-slay case.
“There are things I want to bring attention to the Filipino people, especially the rape of the children. It’s nonstop. In Quezon, there’s somebody there who is a serial rapist… Find that person and don’t let him live,” President Duterte said in a speech Monday.
Lt. Col. Jezreel Calderon, Candelaria police director, said they suspected that the man died of acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis or more commonly known as “bangungot,” adding that investigators found no bruises on the body of Burce.
The incident was the latest of the rising number of rape cases in the province, which prompted the President to order the Quezon police to profile the possible serial rapist preying on the young girls in the province.
”I hate profiling. I do not like it but we are forced to do it. These girls are innocent then somebody will rape them. If you will let him alive, cut his penis. So that he will be sad all the days of his life,” Duterte said Tuesday night.