Duterte condemns murder, skinning of Lapu-Lapu girl

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday expressed outrage over the murder of a teenage girl in Lapu-Lapu City whose skin had also been peeled from her face and who also may have been raped.

Duterte was discussing his government's fight against illegal drugs and criminality when he brought up the incident in a speech during the PDP-Laban campaign rally in Cauayan City, Isabela.

'Yung rape noon at binabantayan pa namin and you know if you know Maggie dela Riva, she's really beautiful. Maano 'yung utak mo na how she could have endured such brutality," the President said, referring to the actress who was abducted and raped by four men in 1967.

"Pero ngayon kita mo naman bata, ni-rape...rape-in yung five-year-old na bata ng pari, [at] kahapon may pinatay ang mga p___ ina niya binalatan 'yung mukha. Tapos yung iba four months old," he added.

The victim, identified as 16-year-old Christine Silawan, was found dead in a vacant lot on Monday morning. She attended mass on Sunday morning but went missing afterwards.

She was found with a slit across her throat and several stab wounds in her body. She was also naked from the waist down, which prompted authorities to consider that she may have been raped.

An investigation is ongoing to identify the suspect/s behind the gruesome crime, which was also condemned by the Department of Education and the Commission on Human Rights. — BM, GMA News