US Calls for Murder charges Against Peace Corps Killer
Danny Chan
The United States government and the US Peace Corps have called on the Ifugao prosecutor’s office to file murder charges against the confessed killer of an American Peace Corps volunteer. A source from the prosecutor’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated Peace Corps officials and representatives from the American embassy in the Philippines requested that murder charges be brought against Juan Donald Duntugan for his alleged role in the killing of Julia Campbell.
The Philippine Department of Justice added the investigation needed to be studied before charges could be laid against Mr. Duntugan.
“It is very difficult to go against the wishes of the American government, since they tend to act with pressure on matters concerning their nationals,” the source said. “Aside from this is the fact that this incident is a high profile case which the Americans are very interested in.” The official added the US and the Peace Corps were adamant that an accomplice allegedly assisted Mr. Duntugan with the slaying of the 40-year-old Peace Corps volunteer. The embassy has so far refused to comment on claims it was seeking to escalate the charges against Mr. Duntugan, who surrendered to authorities on April 27.
“The PNP (Philippine National Police) and Philippine authorities are handling the case and the embassy is coordinating with them as appropriate,” Matthew Lussenhop, the US embassy’s press attaché, said.
Ifugao provincial police have sufficient evidence to lay murder or homicide charges against the suspect. Senior Superintendent Pedro Ganir, the province’s police director, said the Department of Justice needed to determine the charges it would file against Mr. Duntugan.
Richard Anthony Fadullon, the justice department’s assistant chief prosecutor, said the DOJ has yet to receive information on the charges. Marvin Ngayawan, Ifugao’s deputy prosecutor, said the prosecution was still analyzing police reports to determine if murder or robbery with homicide charges would be brought against the defendant. Homicide is a bailable offense while murder is non-bailable.
A tearful Mr. Duntugan was meanwhile brought before the media at Camp Crane in Quezon City on April 30. Director General Oscar Calderon, the Philippine National Police chief, told reporters “initial results of the investigation (will) really be enough to implicate (the suspect) … so we consider this case solved.”
“We do not take his statement hook, line, and sinker. It was a doubtful statement. We base our findings on investigation, physical evidence. Kaya nga (That’s why it’s) murder. Otherwise it is a homicide case,” Mr. Calderon commented, adding murder charges had been filed against Mr. Duntugan a day earlier.
Although the 25-year-old woodcarver from Banaue, Ifugao stayed silent during the press conference on the advice of his legal team, he earlier confessed to police he mistook Ms. Campbell for a neighbor with whom he was having an argument. Believing the American was his neighbor, he attacked Ms. Campbell with a stone to the head.
In his confession to police, Mr. Duntugan said he believed the Peace Corps volunteer was actually Emiliano Blas, whom he asserted bullied the town’s residents.
“My mind went blank,” he said in his statement to police. “I did not know who she was or what she was. I got a rock and I hit her on the head. If I can change my body for hers, I will do it. But that’s not possible. Whatever punishment you will impose on me, I will accept it.”
He said it was near nightfall on April 8 when he was bumped from behind while walking home carrying a sack of clothes.
“I tried to pick up the contents of the sack, but saw a rock nearby. I was angry, so I picked up the rock and hit the person with it,” he told police as his lawyer, Maribas Lubiton-Habawel from the Public Attorney’s Office in Lagawe, stood nearby. Mr. Duntugan was turned in by his mother 19 days after Ms. Campbell was last seen alive on April 8.
In the statement, Mr. Duntugan added he was “extremely scared” upon realizing he had killed Ms. Campbell. He pulled the body down a cliff. He then washed the bloodstains on the trail using a bottle of water he found on the victim. Mr. Duntugan proceeded home to bathe, then later threw his clothes down a cliff.
At around 10:30 p.m. Mr. Duntugan dragged the body further down a dried-up creek and placed the corpse inside a shallow grave he dug using a bolo, with the victim’s cell phone serving as a light source, before returning home at 1 a.m.
“I grabbed everything I could lay my hands on and used these to bury the body,” he said. Philippine soldiers stumbled upon Ms. Campbell’s remains when they noticed her feet protruding out of the earth near the village.
Raul Gonzalez, the Philippine justice secretary, stirred controversy when he said on April 20 that the Peace Corps volunteer was partly to blame for her own death. He said Ms. Campbell was “a little irresponsible” and “if she was not alone, it would not have happened.” Mr. Gonzalez moreover labeled her “careless”.
Ms. Campbell’s remains were cremated in the Philippines and flown to the US. At a memorial service in Fairfax, Virginia, her brother-in-law said her Peace Corps service in the Philippines marked her greatest contribution. She had previously worked as a freelance journalist, contributing stories to The New York Times and People.
