Fabel Pineda was a 15-year-old girl from Ilocos Sur with a bright smile and even brighter dreams of becoming a nurse or a flight attendant. Her mother worked overseas in Kuwait, and Fabel, the seventh of eight siblings, was known for her kind and cheerful spirit. But in the summer of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, her life was tragically and violently cut short, not by a random criminal, but allegedly by the very police officers sworn to protect her.

On the night of June 27, 2020, Fabel and her 18-year-old cousin, “Rika,” were walking home from a friend’s birthday party, in violation of the local pandemic curfew. They were stopped by two men on motorcycles, who identified themselves as Police Staff Sergeants Randy Ramos and Marawi Torda. Instead of taking the girls to the police station as they claimed they would, the officers drove them to a dark, secluded area by the sea. There, the two young women were subjected to a horrific ordeal.

After the violation, the officers threatened the girls with a gun, warning them to stay silent before forcing them back onto their motorcycles. In a desperate act of courage, Fabel and Rika managed to jump from the moving vehicles and escape into the night.

Shaken but determined, the girls, accompanied by their aunt, went to the Cabugao Municipal Police Station the very next morning to report the incident at the Women and Children’s Protection Desk (WCPD). This is where their nightmare took a second, more insidious turn.

The officer on duty, Staff Sergeant Pascua, was reportedly dismissive and indifferent. Instead of immediately processing their complaint, she was preoccupied with her phone and told the traumatized girls to come back another day to schedule a medico-legal exam.

In the following days, the family noticed a man surveilling their home, and their fear intensified. They reported the intimidation to Sergeant Pascua, who allegedly brushed off their concerns as “normal.” For days, the family went back and forth to the station, their pleas for help and protection repeatedly ignored and delayed.

On July 2, Fabel was at the station again, carrying the papers needed to file her case. She explicitly requested a police escort, telling Pascua that her family was terrified. Her request was denied. Once again, she was told to go home and come back the next day.

Minutes later, as Fabel was riding home on a motorcycle with her uncle and 13-year-old brother, they were ambushed. Two men on another motorcycle collided with them, knocking Fabel to the ground. According to her uncle, who survived the attack, Fabel recognized her assailants and uttered her final, heartbreaking words, pleading with the men by name: “Sir Randy, Sir Marawi, please don’t take our lives, I’m begging you.”

Her pleas were ignored. The life of the 15-year-old girl who had tried so desperately to seek justice was ended by six gunshots. The very papers she intended to file were found scattered beside her.

The incident sparked national outrage, with the hashtag #JusticeForFabel trending online. The case became a symbol of police brutality and systemic failure. An investigation by the Commission on Human Rights revealed that Ramos and Torda were off-duty when they first accosted the girls, meaning they had no authority to make a curfew arrest.

The legal and administrative process that followed has been slow and convoluted. Staff Sergeant Pascua was removed from her post and charged with Obstruction of Justice for her gross negligence. While Ramos and Torda were placed under “restrictive custody,” the criminal case against them for the tragic incident involving Fabel is still being heard in court.

The case has been marked by controversy and delays, but Fabel’s family, led by her mother who returned from Kuwait, continues their unwavering fight for a final verdict for the daughter who was so tragically failed by the very system meant to protect her.