DAVAO CITY – “I am not guilty.”
Isabelo Amper insisted yesterday he had nothing to do with the death of his 12-year-old daughter Marianeth, who reportedly killed herself by hanging last Nov. 2.
“I have not done my daughter any wrong. I am not guilty,” Amper told The STAR, adding that he is willing to face any investigation regarding the case.
He said he is not going anywhere and that he is making available all the other members of the family for any investigation.
“We are just here. We are not running away from anyone. The investigators could question us any time,” Amper said.
Marianeth, who was first reported to have committed suicide due to extreme poverty, was found in an autopsy to have lacerations in her genitals that could indicate rape.
Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte declared Thursday that the death of the young Amper would be the subject of a criminal investigation following the autopsy on her remains.
Duterte emphasized that the girl took her life not because of poverty but because she was troubled by the fact that she was sexually abused at a young age.
The mayor ordered Talomo police station chief Superintendent Matthew Baccay to conduct a thorough investigation of the case to find out who exactly perpetrated the crime on the girl.
Among the first to be called in for investigation was the elder Amper, since it took him four days to report the incident to the police and only when the family sought assistance for the burial of the girl from City Hall, which required the family to submit a death certificate.
Amper explained that he thought the record at the Davao Medical Center (DMC) where the girl was first brought for emergency treatment was already enough and that there was no need to report the incident to the police.
Baccay went to the Amper residence at Yniguez Subdivision, Sitio Bugac, Barangay Ma-a to immediately conduct the investigation.
A brief re-enactment was also done at the house on the circumstances when the girl’s body was found hanging on a rope.
Baccay said the elder Amper and two of his sons were subjected to drug tests yesterday as part of the initial investigation on them. It was learned that the three were among the men living in the Amper house.
“Further investigation is ongoing and hopefully, we are going to get to the bottom of things,” Baccay added.
Amper lamented how the turn of events in his daughter’s death has affected him and his family, especially after the results of the autopsy were released.
He said he consented to the autopsy just to end all speculations surrounding Marianeth’s death, but he never expected that the media attention on their family, especially on him, would be too much that they no longer know how to handle it.
“This is too much already. This has filled us with shame. I do not have the will to face anyone anymore. We are so ashamed already,” Amper said.
“I feel so weak. I do not know what to do anymore with what is happening,” Amper said.
He said that at first, there was an outpouring of help and assistance from different groups and individuals but now, they have become the subject of continued harsh speculations, even by media.