UST student in ‘immersion’ still missing

18-year-old Rizza Camingawan, a legal management freshman at the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters, was reported missing by her father after a supposed immersion last December. (Photo grabbed from Roland Camingawan's Facebook page)

The official publication of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) has reported that a female student who went missing after attending an “immersion” with farmers in Quezon province has yet to come home, contrary to a report quoting her father.

The Varsitarian said that Rizza Divine Camingawan remained missing according to her mother Luisa Camingawan. But the mother said she was able to talk to her daughter last Wednesday through a mobile phone but that she seemed not at liberty to talk.

The mother said she could hear people in the background who seemed to be dictating to her Rizza what to say to her.

“I can recognize her voice but I can hear other people in the background laughing. There were three girls. Every time I ask her something, someone else teaches her what to tell me,” Camingawan was quoted as saying.

Rizza also sent her text messages but she could not be certain they were really from her daughter, the mother said.

The student asked permission to go to a mall last 19 December, but she later sent them a message via Facebook that she was in fact joining an “immersion” in Quezon province.

A legal management student, Rizza, 18, has since then deactivated her social media accounts and was reaching out to her parents using a different cellphone number.

The mother’s account conflicted with a text message sent to The Varsitarian by the father, Roland Camingawan, who claimed she was already physically with them last Wednesday night.

The UST chapter of the League of Filipino Students had confirmed that Rizza participated in the immersion program it had facilitated.