A REVIEW OF THE PROSECUTION EXPERTS' IDENTIFICATION OF THE FEMALE CADAVER FOUND IN TAN-AWAN, CARCAR, CEBU ON JULY 18, 1997 

INTRODUCTION 
          Sometime during the first week of December, I and the members Of my Forensic Team were contacted by parties belonging to the defense side of the Criminal Case No. 45303‑45204 (People of the Philippines versus Larranaga, et al.). We were requested to review the body of physical evidence(s) submitted by the prosecution experts' as these relate to the positive identification of the body of a female found in Tan-awan, Carcar Cebu and the possible manner and circumstances of her death. The members of the Forensic Review Team are enumerated in Dr. Benito E. Molino's Report including their respective areas of expertise. This reviewer focused on the methods, materials used as well as the findings related to the prosecution experts' identification efforts.  

MATERIALS USED FOR REVIEW  
          Materials used for this review include: 
            1. Xerox copies of the court proceedings on this case (including the appended documentary exhibits); 
            2. COPY of the COMELEC Voter Registration Record of Marijoy Chiong; 
            3. Thumb skin specimen Preparations made by Region 7 Forensic Personnel; 
            4. Submitted photos of Marijoy Chiong; 
            5. Photos taken of a cadaver at the bottom of the ravine in Tan-awan; 
            6. Photos taken of a body at the autopsy table; 
            7. Information shared by personnel (Edgardo Lenizo and Maj. Langcam) of the PNP Crime Laboratory for Region 7; 
            8. Other materials submitted as exhibits which were made briefly available for our inspection and photography last January 8; 
            9. News clippings of Cebu Daily News (CDN) and Star Star Daily; and 
          10. Computer enhanced print-outs of the above photographs. (Plates A and B illustrate the usefulness and power of computer-enhancement in bringing out the fine details of the piece of log above the head of the body);

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PNP BASIS FOR POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION
          The PNP Crime Laboratory Personnel claimed that they had positively identified the body of the female found in Tan-awan as that of Marijoy Chiong. The materials which were used for this purpose was an epidermal skin pr preparation from the cadaver which was compared with a right thumb print allegedly on a Voter's Registration Record belonging to Marijoy Chiong. PNP Fingerprint technicians-Police Inspector Edgardo Lenizo testified that he found twelve (12) points of resemblances between the ridge patterns of the cadaver and the ink prints from the right thumb mark of Marijoy Chiong.

          No other methods nor materials were utilized by the PNP Forensic Personnel nor by the prosecution to alternatively identify that body as that of Marijoy Chiong. Lenizo was quoted as saying that he is "100% morally certain" about his findings leading to a positive identification.

REVIEW OF THE PNP FORENSIC PERSONNEL'S METHOD, MATERIALS USED AND FINDINGS: 
          The first limitation in the methodological approach of the PNP Crime Laboratory Personnel as far as the identification process is concerned is their failure to follow standard procedures of Identification contained in standard manuals and books such as Field Disaster Identification: Preparation-Orqanization-Procedureus.  US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Revised 1982 and Human Identification: Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology, edited by Rathbun T.A. and Bukstra, J.E., Charles C. Thomas, 1984. 

          Foremost of these procedures is the putting together into a detailed and comprehensive personal history (ante-mortem) profile all known documented or recalled (by next of kin, close associates, intimate friends of the victim) physical characteristics of a missing person suspected to be that of the cadaver, including the personal effects last seen on the person. Likewise, information gathered by examining the cadaver using the categories noted in the anti-mortem profile is put together into a victim's (cadaveric) profile. By comparing and matching the information accumulated from these two bodies of information, a tentative. or even a positive match can be

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effected. Using this basic technique those in charge of identifying the body could have easily checked on the "presence of a "mole in the nose" by Marijoy as an identifying trait in the COMELEC Voter's Registration Record, or similar other distinguishing features such as other moles, dimples, scars, ear characteristics, tattoo or other body decorations, etc. Part of this procedure is a thorough and professionally taken set of photographs of the cadaver (from the head down to the foot on both the frontal and both side-view positions, which could be compared with existing photos of the missing person for matching details. Standard forms for collecting relevant data for ante-mortem and post-mortem profiling are after all readily available and have been used for some time now. 

          Reliance on only one method based on very limited and not so informative material such as a single and poorly printed right thumbprint and a badly prepared right thumb skin preparation is also one of the major PNP crime Laboratory Personnel's inadequacies in Human Identification Procedures.  

          It is unfortunate and rather surprising that there was no serious attempt to use dental data taken from the cadaver for matching with Marijoy's dental records. Given that the sister Jacqueline was reported to have a dental record that was used to identify another set of female remains recovered later in a nearby locale from Carcar, Cebu . It is reasonable to expect that Marijoy (as is the impression of the odontologist member of our team- Dr. Anastacio Rosete) must have been previously attended to by a dentist and that dentist must be the same as that of her sister's (Jacqueline) who provided the above dental record for matching with the more recently discovered female human remain.  

          And even if no previous dental record existed for Marijoy, her ample and clear frontal photographs (i.e. of the face) showing distinctly at least six of her upper front teeth could have been used to match a similarly posed facial photo of the cadaver. There was no excuse not to make use of dental data in this case. This reviewer encountered some cases where the dental matching proved to be more useful and accurate instead of questionable fingerprint specimens in positively identifying decomposing cadavers.

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          Furthermore, other traits that could exclude other putative victims have been either noted or whose basis has not been specified. Thus no cadaveric height measure was reported and no basis offered to support the claim that the cadaver is into its early twenties (20 years old?) which could have firmed up the identification of the body as that of Marijoy Chong or excluded it entirely if the discrepancies are too great to be reconcilable. Our Forensic Odontologist discussed this aspect on the dentition in more detail in his review/report. 

          The right-thumb print from the COMELEC Voter's Record is far from being an ideal reference/standard fingerprint record to compare with the skin specimen from the cadaver. 

          For one, inspite of its being indicated at the bottom of the print as a rolled thumb print it is only a plain (dabbed-on or touch) print, which is less informative than a rolled print. Appendix-I illustrates an error in fingerprint pattern classification when a plain print is used especially as a reference print. In addition, the lower portion of the print is not printed well leading to a significant loss of detail/information from its most important portion, the core.

          The resort to epidermal skin excision is not a usual method of getting finger print data. So radical is it as a procedure that it is rarely done and must have the special dispensation from the head of the Medico-legal Team. The skin sample allegedly taken from the thumb of the cadaver shows a lot of inadequacies. A significant portion shows loss of epidermal surface tissue probably a result of sloughing from a decomposing cadaver. There are also cuts and large tears on the epidermal surface, resulting from careless scraping of the underlying tissues. 

          We learned from Police Inspector Lenizo (PNP dactyloscopist) that his team tried to get fingerprints in the usual ink-roll method. But because the fingers are already stiff from embalming, which by the way also wrinkles the epidermal surface, his team resorted to this procedure. One wonders why the fingers were not reconstituted (injected with suitable substance to inflate the fingertips so it could assume its normal convex shape for easier ink-print collection. One would also ask why the finger prints taken (or attempted) with the usual printer's ink roll procedure were never produced or used, for the

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information these might contained inspite of their being imperfect prints. And why were only the thumb skins excised. The skin on the other fingers could be informative and useful if suitable reference standards will become available. 

          Further on, the skin sample whose underside was not carefully "scraped" was sandwich tightly between two thick glass plates. The flattening of the once convex fingertip skin further resulted in the further distortion of the fingerprint patterns. Some portions were stretched and maybe this resulted in (or necessitated) their large scale tearing (intentionally?) at the sides and the concomitant compression of the lines against its other in the other portions. 

          Because the fingertips were previously inked in the usual fingerprinting procedure, initially only the ridges were relatively uniformly inked. But because of the scraping procedure which necesscitated the positioning and rubbing motion of the epidermal surface against a flat surface, the ink was displaced and rubbed off from the ridges and occupied or were caught in the grooves (Sulci) of the epidermis. Reading and comparison errors could happen when the lines from the inked ridges appearing on the reference/standard COMELEC fingerprint would be confused/ compared with the ink containing grooves (sulci) or the skin preparation. 

          More seriously, the displaced ink (in the previously-inked skin preparation) to the less prominent (relative to the ridges) grooves or sulci (crevices) of the epidermis, would result in the displaced ink outlining the borders of artificially terminated (by decomposition sloughing or by cutting as a result of the procedure adopted) ridges and their being read as terminal points. It is also possible for a terminated ridge (either from natural or procedural factors) to be interpreted as a bifurcation, when' in fact it is not.

          "'These sources of distortion of the lines, ridges and groves appearing on the epidermal surface form the basis of our dactyloscopy expert"- - Ret. (Col.) Reynaldo Marcelo to point out a significant number of misreadings that would question the validity of. the findings of 12 points of resemblances or consistencies between the poorly prepared Right thumb print from the COMELEC Record and the badly

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prepared Right thumb skin preparation allegedly taken from the cadaver. 

          One also wonders why no further effort was made to look for a better standard fingerprint from the COMELEC office in Cebu. The voters application form and the voters election form as well as Police Clearance or school I.D. forms should contain other fingerprints that could serve as even better standard/reference prints. 

OTHER RELEVANT DATA 
          The failure of the PNP Forensic team to locate the obviously easy to spot mole on the nose as Marijoy's "identifying trait," she herself noted down in her COMELEC voter's Record and the contrary observation allegedly of her brother that the head hair on the cadaver as too long to be that of Marijoy, quoted in a Cebu local newspaper are worth underscoring here. Both traits being intrinsic to the body, instead of being occasionally put on (as for instance clothing and other transferable or mass-produced items) only add to our reasonable doubt that the body has been definitively and positively identified as that of Marijoy Chiong.

          To be sure there is consistency in the reported clothing (Blue "'Guess" Jeans and Orange *"Giordano" collared T-shirt) last worn by Marijoy Chiong as that listed in a local newspaper (Sun Star Daily, July 22, 1997) and those items worn by the cadaver a Carcar. Unfortunately, clothing or items occasionally worn by the individual that are mass-produced, readily available in popular sizes in many supermarkets, not only here but elsewhere can only add points to a presumptive but not definitive identification of a body.

          I have been involved in a number of cases involving human remains identification both of the whole body as in the Ozone, Lung Center and Princess of the Orient mass-disaster tragedies or in single separated human skeletal remains as in my involvement with Human Rights Group such as FIND, MAG, KARAPATAN, EMJP, and DESAPARECIDOS, as head of the Identification Team. 

          The Identification team normally includes specialists such as forensic odontologists, medical forensics. and anthropologist. In my job as the identification head, I 

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usually follow the guidelines contained in the FBI Manual in identification (cited above). It is usually my task to collate all the reports of the various specialists such as on fingerprints, dental records, anthropological observations and measurements, as well as data on personal effects. All these must be carefully scrutinize in terms of their authenticity, validity, reliability and recency of information and over all contribution to the identification effort. As head it is often my responsibility upon consultation with the other specialists "to accept or decline identification data contributed by the various specialties or from relatives or associates of the victim."

          In the course of our work, '"external pressures from various organizations and pressure from tentative eye witnesses accounts may be exerted to obtain release of the body(-ies) prior to positive identification being effected" .  .  .  Succumbing to these pressures has historically resulted in unnecessary erroneous identification. Victims should be released only when all other possible means of establishing positive identity have been exhausted" [underscoring supplied (FBI, Field Disaster Identification: Preparation-Organization-Procedure, Revised 1982, pp. 7, 16.)

CONCLUDING REMARK 
          I could not definitely rule out, at this point that the body of a female friend at the bottom of a ravine in Brgy. Tan-awan, Carcar, Cebu, given the above considerations could be that of Marijoy Chiong. On the other hand, I also feel that the available and requisite methods of Human Identification procedures that should generate the kinds of adequate and incontrovertible findings leading to a positive identification have not boon sufficiently harnessed towards a definite resolution of this problem.

          A compelling adequacy and level of certainty in the positive identification of the said body is all the more necessary as the place where it was found has been noted by the police and the local inhabitants in the area as a frequent dumping ground of victims of summary, extrajudicial killings dating back to Martial Law days and where alleged suicide victims are still frequently recovered.

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RECOMMENDATION
Inspite of legal opinions already expressed by many legal minds inside and outside the country, on the marginal (if any) relevance of the positive identification of that body from Carcar to the case being litigated and the converse claim that this bears directly on the credibility of the State's star witness, I submit that positive identity of that body is an important issue to the public, here in Cebu, the rest of the country, and elsewhere in the world.

          Riveted on this story by the sustained coverage of the media, this public has invested an important part of their time, interest, compassion, anger and sympathy on the dramatis personae in this case. They would be disappointed if the identity of the victim and her victimizers will continue to be clouded in doubt. The resolution of this tragedy would not be quite complete. Toward this end the following recommendations are offered:

            1. All photos (and negatives) taken of the cadaver at Carcar at the crime scene and at the mortuary laboratory be further examined for added details that could contribute to a positive or negative identification.

            2. If that is not enough, an exhumation of the entombed body is indicated to resolve all remaining doubts as to its identity. If done with sensitivity by competent and careful forensic personnel, the disturbance of this resting place would amount to much less than the possible perversion and therefore desecration of the truth for all those who earnestly seek it. 

signed: Jerome B. Bailen
              Associate Professor in Anthropology
                 Laboratory of Physical Anthropology and Archeology
              University of the Philippines , Diliman, Quezon City

PLATE A   Photo of cadaver without enhancement by computer of the details 
                 of the log. To the right of the body's head  (ordinary enlargement).

PLATE B   Same photo _ _ _ _ _ _  of computer enhancement of log at top back.