Cries for justice won’t stop In Tacloban
TACLOBAN CITY—Grief filled the air as family, relatives and friends bid farewell on Thursday to Yohancee “Yancee” Separa, the last of the three students slain in the June 22 school shooting here to be laid to rest.
At the final sendoff, her family renewed their call for justice for the victims.
As her coffin was lowered into the ground at Holy Cross Memorial Garden, her father, Jaime, struggled to hold back his emotions.
“Sorry, Yancee. I was not around when it happened,” he said in Waray, his voice breaking with grief.
Jaime later explained that he could not forgive himself for not being with his 15-year-old daughter during the attack. “I could have saved her. I could have helped,” he said.
Jaime and his wife, Jennelyn, declined to grant interviews after the burial but remained at their daughter’s gravesite until cemetery personnel completed the interment.
Hit in the back
Holding a framed photograph of her daughter, Jennelyn softly whispered, “We love you, Yancee.”
The family’s grief was equally evident in Separa’s 11-year-old brother, a Grade 6 pupil, as he bade farewell to his sister.
“I will miss you, Yancee. I will never forget you, and I will make sure that those behind your death will be held responsible,” he said through tears before throwing unripe mangoes wrapped in plastic into his sister’s grave, a gesture of remembrance for one of her favorite fruits.
Separa died while being taken to a hospital after a bullet struck her in the back and pierced through her chest during the attack at San Jose National High School here.
Her classmate, Chris Lorenz Fabian, 15, was buried on June 30, while Ayessha Nicole Dazo, 14, was buried on July 1.
The families of the three victims have repeatedly appealed to the government to ensure justice, particularly by seeking accountability for both suspects allegedly involved in the attack that also wounded at least 15 others.
Authorities have filed three counts of murder and multiple counts of frustrated murder against the 15-year-old suspect, identified only as “Rod.”
However, the other suspect, a 14-year-old boy identified only as “Nash,” has not been criminally charged.
According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Eastern Visayas, the younger suspect cannot be held criminally liable under the country’s juvenile justice law because he is below the age of criminal liability of 15.
Both minors are under the custody of the regional DSWD and housed in separate quarters in a rehabilitation facility managed by the agency while legal proceedings continue.
A Senate panel has started an investigation into the Tacloban shooting this week.
