Earlier, the girls father told a reporter that he thought the Davao Medical Center examination on the childs body was enough.
But how sure was he that it was suicide? Duterte snapped back. For all we know, somebody must have gone inside the house and did it to her.”
The father should have immediately sought police assistance, he said, instead of believing that her girl killed herself because of poverty,” Duterte said.
Duterte said he will invite the teachers and other people who can help shed light to the 12-year-old girls death. He said he also wanted to verify reports circulating over the radio that Mariannet had tore some pages of her notebook, because it might cause the break up of her mother and father.
The girls teachers at the Maa Elementary School said they could not remember having required their pupils school projects worth P100. Penelope Magtabog, the girls class adviser, raised the possibility that the girl could have some deeper problems.
Dimaantal said aside from the rope mark on the neck and the lacerations, the autopsy team did not find anything else. “Aside from these, there are no other findings,” he said. The rope mark around her neck showed that she was still alive when she was hanged, he explained.
Dimaandal refused to give a copy of the findings, saying it was not yet complete. He said the autopsy was properly documented.
A classmate said Mariannet already spoke about her death wish since she was in grade two.
In a local television interview, a classmate said Mariannet had tried to confide her problem to her but decided against it, saying, “it will tear her family apart.”
Psychologists quoted by the media said it was highly unbelievable for a girl to take away her life for such a flimsy reason as poverty.
Even before Mariannet was buried, doubts on the cause of the girl’s death already circulated. (Cheryll Fiel with a report from Marilou Aguirre).
