Ben Madilynn
AN 18-YEAR-OLD woman who left home on Thursday, September 19, 2024, was found dead inside a lodging house around 8:30 a.m. of the following day, Friday, in Barangay Poblacion, Toledo City, in midwest Cebu.
The victim, identified as Mae Fatima Tagactac, a Grade 12 student from Buanoy National High School and a resident of Barangay Mainggit, Toledo, was discovered dead by a room attendant.
The attendant knocked on the door to remind them of their check-out time but nobody answered.
He then had to force the door open and discovered the victim wrapped in a blanket and her mouth tied with a handkerchief.
According to reports, Mae had informed her younger siblings at noon on Thursday that she was going out to practice dancing with her classmates.
However, she did not return home that evening, and attempts to contact her cell phone were unsuccessful.
Her siblings were unaware that she had arranged to meet a man she had met on Facebook.
However, their mother and other siblings knew that Mae had planned a meet-up with a boyfriend, who was a seaman.
Mae’s brother, Jelvin, expressed that had they known she was going to meet this man, they would have prevented her from leaving.
“She told my younger siblings that she was going out on Thursday noon, and they said she also informed our mother that she was going to practice dancing. In the evening, we grew worried when she didn’t come home, so we used her Facebook account to message her classmates, asking where Mae Fatima was, but they said the practice didn’t push through,” Jelvin explained.
At this point, the family posted on Facebook, asking the public for any information on her whereabouts.
The Toledo City Police are investigating the victim’s Facebook account, with assistance from the PNP Regional Anti-Cyber Crime Unit 7 to gather more information related to the incident.
Authorities obtained CCTV footage showing the suspect entering the lodging house in Barangay Poblacion, Toledo.
The suspect has been identified as Lorben Cabugsan Barot, who used the alias Richard Cabugsan.
In line with the incident, the head of the Police Regional Office 7 ordered a regionwide manhunt operation across Central Visayas to capture Barot.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson for PRO 7 Director Brigadier General Anthony Aberin, condemned the brutal killing of Mae Fatima. The police are committed to capturing the suspect as quickly as possible, using all available resources.
“Currently, we have coordinated regionwide manhunt operations to apprehend the suspect. We are also coordinating with other regions, as the suspect has committed infractions in other areas,” Pelare stated.
All exit points, including ports in Cebu, are being monitored, and police have circulated images of the suspect to aid in his capture. If he manages to cross the sea, authorities have already instructed their counterparts to intercept him.
Pelare assured that the suspect would be arrested soon, as there is clear CCTV footage showing him entering the lodging house in Barangay Poblacion, Toledo City.
A woman known as Nita, who is the caretaker of the house rented by the suspect at Pier 1 in Cebu City, reported that the suspect lived there with his live-in partner.
On Friday evening, she saw them having dinner together.
Nita didn’t expect Lorben, whom she knew as Richard, to commit such a crime, describing him as polite.
“He didn’t seem like a bad person, sir. He looked decent and didn’t really talk to us much,” Nita said.
Neighbors later informed her that Lorben left on a motorcycle and did not return, possibly realizing that authorities were looking for him.
Nita also mentioned that she had met Lorben months ago at the pier, where he often slept on the roadside. He confided in her that he had lost his job after his Korean employer stopped paying him. Out of sympathy, she allowed him to stay in her small house while he worked as a taxi dispatcher at the pier.
The suspect’s live-in partner has been brought to the Toledo City Police Station for an investigation. (AYB, DVG, TPT)
