Pinay maid accused of murder in Singapore to undergo psychiatric test

SINGAPORE (AP) — A Filipino maid accused of killing and dismembering the body of another maid will undergo a state-ordered psychiatric assessment next week, her lawyer said yesterday.

Guen Garlejo Aguilar, 29, charged with murdering compatriot Jane Parangan La Puebla on Sept. 7, appeared in court in a pretrial session at which her lawyer said he had requested police permission for her husband to see her before Sunday when he returns to the Philippines. Police are considering the request.

Defense counsel Shashi Nathan said he hopes police will let Edwin Aguilar meet his wife, who has been remanded to the Changi Women’s Prison, today.

Psychiatric tests on the suspect next week could take days, Nathan said. The next pretrial court session is Oct. 14. Nathan said his first discussion with his client on Thursday yielded "quite a lot of information" about the case.

"I have at least in my mind one or two defenses which may or may not be available to Guen," Nathan said without elaborating.

The woman accused of chopping up La Puebla and dumping the remains in plastic bags around Singapore listened impassively to the brief proceedings. There was no eye contact or other communication between Aguilar and her husband, who sat in the gallery.

"Guen is looking forward to seeing her husband, she kept on talking to us about her two sons," Nathan said.

In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador to Singapore Belen Anota said that the third court mention of the murder case against Aguilar pushed through as scheduled yesterday during which the prosecution indicated that the Singapore police have completed their investigations.

Also in the gallery were La Puebla’s husband, Crusaldo La Puebla, and aunt, Sally Parangan.

The husbands of La Puebla and Aguilar met and talked for almost half an hour yesterday and remained civil with each other, Anota said.

"You could see that they are civil. There was no anger and for that I think we have to be very grateful to God that they had been blessed with a Christian heart," she said.

"The family are grieving currently," said Zaheer Merchant, lawyer for the victim’s family. "They’d like to see that some form of justice be done."

La Puebla’s relatives were accompanied by Dante Jimenez, chairman of the Manila-based crime watchdog Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption. Jimenez said he would coordinate with Singaporean non-governmental organizations to monitor the trial.

Aguilar’s family and officials from her hometown of Tagudin in Ilocos Sur, north of Manila, have appealed to President Arroyo to intervene in the case. They fear Aguilar might suffer the same fate as another Filipino maid, Flor Contemplacion, who was executed in Singapore in 1995 for murder despite appeals — and outrage - from Manila.

Tempers flared over the execution and the two countries temporarily withdrew their respective ambassadors. Relations were normalized a year later.

About 140,000 foreign maids work in Singapore. Most are from the Philippines and Indonesia. — With Marvin Sy, Mayen Jaymalin