A Closer Look at Mariannet Amper’s Sad Fate

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Mariannet Amper could have been famous by being on GMA 7’s Wish Ko Lang rather than her death. Everyone thought poverty claimed her life and that the government was to be blamed for it directly. Soon, protests were taken to the streets to shame public officials who mishandle taxes and corrupt their way into more riches. The whole nation mourned as everyone reexamined the circumstances that surrounded the 12 year old’s suicide: both her parents were unemployed, she couldn’t go to school and her family could barely make ends meet. Although these reasons could be possible causes for her early death, some weren’t convinced:

“It is unfair to simply look at suicide in that angle (poverty). After all, many poor Filipinos do not resort to killing themselves despite their hopeless condition. And there have been cases of children born to well-to-do families who have committed or attempted suicide.

Suicide is not an instant decision, she said. It is borne out of a suicidal tendency that the child develops within himself.

Suicidal tendency, in turn, is a psychosocial and multi-factorial behavior that is developed through time when the child faces long-standing problems within himself and in his immediate environment.”

- Dr. Ma. Luz Casimiro-Querubin (psychiatrist)

True. Someone as young as her couldn’t just decide to end her life because of poverty; it’s not something kids would think about. So to give everyone peace of mind, her body was exhumed and reexamined only to reveal that she had been raped. Although the lacerations found in her gentalia were old wounds, the fact that she bore those scars were enough proof to consider foul play or worse, a traumatic experience that could have pushed her to commit suicide.

Mrs. Magdalena Amper, Mariannet’s mother, defended her husband and her sons saying that her daughter could have had those wounds because she liked to ride bicycles and climb trees. Her family couldn’t do such a thing to her daughter and she wouldn’t know of anyone who could have done that to her. Unless the dead could speak, the investigators’ only chance of solving this case is for someone to come forward and testify. But seeing as everyone is clueless or trying to conceal their guilt, then this case is as good as unsolved when left to rot in the hands of PNP.

It’s not that I’m being too pessimistic, but considering PNP’s terrible track record of solving cases in this country, I think it’s only fair to have doubts or second thoughts on their capabilities. I mean, just look at how miraculous these guys worked in the Glorietta 2 and the Batasang Pambansa Bombings, have you ever seen them solve cases that fast or capture the culprits that effective? Almost everyone is crying planted evidence but as far as the PNP is concerned, they did a damn good job. It might be just me or has justice been absent in this country for too long that seeing our cops do a good job looks weird? But still, having faith in them shouldn’t hurt; not everything they did resulted to falsehoods.

If you look at this closely, the government and poverty weren’t the ones that killed this child: possible but not quite. If rape could be proven, then clearly, someone should be put behind bars. I find it hard to believe that Mariannet could have set the stage for her death because it’s more probable that someone else did. Plus, why were some pages in her diary torn, to conceal evidence? If their family was really close, as what her mother attests, then how come no one noticed her depressed state or did no one bother to ask her what the hell was troubling her little head? It could be poverty, the government officials, her ‘rapist’ or it could be as simple as being unloved or having been paid little or no attention.

This case started out with one person, the victim, but as investigators unravel the twists that hide the truth, the plot thickens. Soon, everyone close to the family will be hauled in for questions and probably torture, lest the PNP can pinpoint who the real culprit is. This case should be closed soon but it should be done with accuracy and precision so we can properly say justice served.

My only fear in this whole event is that this case would remain unsolved. Because if it does, I’d hate to think that our current situation as a nation can help and escalate the number of people capable of doing such damage to a young and innocent girl.

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