Renowned forensic pathologist Raquel Fortun has classified the death of Chad Booc as a homicide, adding that the 26-year-old Lumad school volunteer teacher most likely died from fatal wounds.

“Clearly, these internal injuries are not compatible with life. I doubt even if he had been attended to medically and surgically even, he would have survived. So it must have caused a fast death,” Fortun said in a March 11 press briefing where she revealed the findings of her preliminary autopsy on Booc.

“I would classify this death as a homicide. Please take note that murder is not our term, it’s a legal term… hanggang homicide lang kami.”

Booc was killed along with his fellow volunteer teacher Jurain Ngujo, community health worker Elgyn Balonga, and their accompanying drivers Robert Aragon and Tirso Añar on their way home from a community they visited for research work.

Save Our Schoold Network cited narrations of witnesses who said that elements of the 10th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines ambushed, abducted, and massacred the group, collectively known as the New Bataan 5.

On March 7, Fortun and others concerned were finally able to arrange the forensic autopsy on Booc’s embalmed remains in Mandaue City, where the funeral parlor that hosted his wake was located.

“I still have to analyze what I can regarding the findings. And as stated in the preliminary autopsy findings report I gave out, it’s still ongoing, and I need a lot of information still,” Fortun said, adding that the histopathology was still pending.

The forensic pathologist was able to locate only one bullet, but X-rays showed a lot more fragments.

Fortun is still analyzing the number of gunshot wounds and said she is uncertain because of the complexity of the shots, but said there were many and close to one another especially in the chest and abdomen. In this case, it is difficult to trace the trajectory of each bullet, she said.

Major limitations include how the embalming repaired certain injuries, resulting in sutures in the entry and exit points of the bullets. According to the forensic pathologist, this meant the details they were looking for had been destroyed.

“All I can tell you for now is that correlating the external and internal findings, Mr. Booc sustained very serious injuries…from multiple gunshot wounds. There were internal hemorrhages, meaning the cavities in the chest, that would be right and left, and then the abdomen, had hemorrhages. Again, this is difficult to quantify, because by this time, the blood is very difficult to remove,” Fortun said.

The hemorrhages mean that Booc was alive when he was shot. Moreover, he suffered extensive lacerations and injuries of many organs, including the lungs, diaphragm, liver, stomach, spleen, intestines, right kidney, and right adrenal gland.

Fortun said the most serious injury Booc sustained on top of the soft tissue lacerations was severe fractures of vertebrae resulting in a severed spinal cord.

This is consistent with Booc’s death certificate, which said he died due to acute blood loss from multiple gunshot wounds from assault by firearms charge. Such charge, Fortun said, “kind of implies homicide.”

The forensic pathologist called for more information and additional investigation, including forensic autopsy, on all victims of the New Bataan 5. “I have very limited information regarding the shooting incident. I’ve had no access to the four other victims,” she explained.

She also said she had no access to the clothes, which were significant evidence that contained information like bullet entry and exit points, as well as gunpowder residue to challenge the claims of the military that this was an encounter.

Chad’s father, Napoleon Booc, thanked Fortun for conducting the autopsy toward a larger investigation on the killing of the New Bataan 5.

Save Our Schools Network welcomed the preliminary findings from the autopsy of their slain Lumad school teacher, which they said raises more questions in the February 25 incident.