Chad Booc's death a homicide, came fast, says forensic expert

The death of Chad Booc, a teacher of Lumad youth, may be classified as a homicide, forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun said on Friday.

Fortun, who conducted an autopsy on Booc's remains, said many of the gunshot injuries the young teacher suffered were fatal. 

"I would classify this death as a homicide. Please take not that murder is not our term. It's a legal term," said Fortun in an online presser organized by the Save Our Schools Network.

"Ang  forensic pathology especially manner of death determination hanggang homicide lang kami," she added.

Booc was one of the five, whom the military claimed were NPA rebels killed in an encounter in New Bataan, Davao de Oro.

Members of SOS said witnesses have told them that there was no encounter. The group claimed the five were massacred.

"The right kidney in particular was really macerated meaning fragmented, severely injured. And on top of that, you have this adrenal gland, the right adrenal gland also injured," Fortun said of Booc's injuries.

"Clearly, these internal injuries are not compatible with life. I doubt even if he had been attended to medically and surgically even, he wouldn't have survived. It must have caused a fast death," she added.

Fortun called for more information surrounding the deaths of Booc and four others to shed light on the incident.

“Let me just end with a call for more information please. He was only one of five killed in an incident and all of them should undergo an investigation into the forensic autopsy,” Fortun said.

“If you really want to get to the bottom of what happened, you know, you're after the truth,” she added.

Fortun said she was able to conduct an autopsy on the remains of Booc in Mandaue City, Cebu. She lamented that body was already embalmed, which limited her observation.

She noted that the bullet wounds were already sutured or stitched together, which added limitations for the autopsy.

“I’d like to make a push please investigate…I don’t even know where it happened. Was it on the ground? Was it on a vehicle? Was it an ambush? I don’t know. So all information I have is on the embalmed remains of Booc,” Fortun said.

“What I’ve heard is that these were civilians. Unfortunately in the Philippines, killing is just to so ordinary  and since we don't investigate then we really didn't get to the bottom of what really happened,” she added. —NB, GMA News