He was 28 years old. He was a Palanca-winning writer. He was a professor in Dela Salle University. And a proud gay.
His name was Winton Lou Ynion, and he was murdered. His hands and feet were tied with a nylon cord and his body was covered with stab wounds.
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A professor e-mailed blast, August this year: “It all happened one night, when Winton took home a guy (or two guys) for a fun night, but the supposed fun night ended in a bloody frenzy.”
Winton’s friend Jojo Flores went to his condominium unit in Katipunan, Quezon City the next day after several unanswered calls. He knocked repeatedly on the door, but there was no answer. He went to the building administrator and asked for help.
When they got inside the unit, the strong stench of the body welcomed them. They found Winton’s body lying in the toilet floor drenched in his own blood.
The QCPD (Quezon City Police District) said: “We have yet to determine what the victim does for a living and the motive for his killing, although our initial theory was robbery.” The police also said that based from the condition of the body, Winton could have been dead for hours or even days before he was discovered.
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Winton was an innocent gay man; he’s like any of us who lives everyday for his dreams and for his family. He never deserved to die the way he did.
It’s been months since Winton was murdered. There’s still no update on the investigations made. The media, as usual, shifted their beat to something more “timely”, and disregarded another murder story of an innocent man. There were only few blogs on the net crying for justice and telling the story of Winton.
This makes me think; is a murder story unimportant to the news and to us, to the point that we are more interested to watch and listen to news that discusses the President’s abundant dinners?
Maybe if the one murdered is a big personality, or someone connected to a personality – its story will shed its light on TV or on the radio, but what about the people who lives a regular life? What about Winton’s story?
He (was) our Facebook friend, our professor, our classmate, our friend, and our brother – and his story deserves to be heard.
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Is this an on going serial-killing? Is this another hate crime? Are the police and the government doing something to thoroughly investigate these kind of crimes and prevent it?
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1981-2009
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REFERENCES:
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Ladlad Partlylist
