CEBU, Philippines - The 16-year-old boy who killed his pregnant mother and five-year-old sister in Naga City will face criminal charges despite his minority.
Cebu Provincial Police Director Patrocinio Comendador has ordered the Naga Police to prepare all necessary evidence so charges for parricide and infanticide or unintentional abortion can be filed against the boy.
Comendador said it is now up to the court to decide whether or not the charges would still prosper after the boy admitted the crime.
In an interview, Insp. Christopher Castro of the Naga Police Station told The FREEMAN the charges will be filed Monday before the prosecutor’s office.
Castro said the boy has been placed under police custody since the incident last Thursday. Representatives of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) are also monitoring the boy constantly.
The boy said Friday he did not shoot his younger sister.
The boy earlier admitted to the police that he beat his mother and younger sister with a .357 revolver that police later recovered from Pansyo’s house. The gun had blood in it.
Contrary to reports yesterday that a bullet slug was recovered from the girl’s head, Dr. Joe Martin Fuentes, PNP medico legal officer, who conducted a postmortem test on the two victims, said the mother and child died of multiple traumatic injuries caused by a blunt object on the head and neck and multiple stab wounds on different parts of their body.
In a follow-up investigation, police also discovered that the suspect has been living alone in a small shanty located a few meters from his aunt’s house. There, investigators recovered a bloodied white towel and pair of shorts that they believe the ones the suspect wore during the killing.
The boy reportedly killed his mother and younger sister after his mother refused to give her money to buy liquor. He reportedly hit his mother, who was lying on a bamboo chair, on the head with the revolver. He then grabbed a knife and stabbed her repeatedly. Afterwards, he turned his attention to his younger sister and also stabbed her repeatedly. The incident happened at the family’s house in Barangay Naalad.
Meanwhile, in an interview, Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong said he believes that drugs might have pushed the suspect to kill his mother and sister.
The mayor also urged local operatives to intensify the anti-drug operation in the city to prevent the same incident from happening again. He said the incident should give a strong signal to parents to be more concerned about their children’s welfare.
Chiong promised to give financial aid to the victims’ family. He also referred to the incident as an “isolated case.”
“Ni-surrender na man ang suspect so that’s already an isolated case,” Chiong said.
The incident happened just three days after Chiong bragged about Naga’s low crime rate in his State of the Naga Address during the city’s fourth charter day celebration last Monday. — (FREEMAN)