Telecoms firm official tagged in slay try

The Navotas City police are waiting for a warrant of arrest to launch a manhunt for a ranking official of a telecommunications firm tagged in a recent slay try on a widow in this coastal city.

“We are just waiting for the issuance of an arrest warrant and we will immediately hunt him down,” Navotas police chief Senior Superintendent Erick Reyes told The STAR.

The suspect, Virgilio Intal, is facing charges before the Navotas City prosecutor’s office after Roxanne Habelito, 25, a resident of Dagat-Dagatan, Navotas City, his alleged lover, said he stabbed her at least 26 times in different parts of her body after she refused to have an abortion.

Habelito’s mother, Remedios Galvez, 57, said her daughter is in critical condition at the Tondo Medical Center. Habelito has two children, the eldest of whom is only three years old.

“If ever she could survive, we are expecting her to become disabled all her life,” Galvez said, and appealed to authorities to help seek justice for her daughter.

Galvez said although charges have been filed against Intal before the office of Prosecutor Ojer Paces, she is afraid the case may go nowhere because Intal, 52, is reportedly an influential man.

She said that at around 10 p.m. on Sept. 28, a barangay watchman found her daughter lying in a pool of blood at the shoreline of Barangay Sipac in Navotas. The watchman rushed Habelito to the Tondo Medical Center for treatment.

According to Galvez, her daughter was having an illicit affair with the legally married Intal. The relationship resulted in Habelito’s pregnancy.

She said that a day before the attempt on her daughter’s life, Habelito told her that Intal wanted an abortion.

“My daughter was already three months pregnant and they had a bitter quarrel because of what happened. The next day, my daughter even tried to confront Intal at their residence but was persuaded by the suspect to calm down,” Galvez said.

Galvez said her daughter and Intal reportedly agreed to meet that night and settle their problem. She was surprised to learn from the police that her daughter was already in a hospital with at least 26 stab wounds in her body. 

Habelito reportedly told the barangay watchman and the police that Intal attacked her.

“She told them that she survived the attack by pretending to be dead, because the suspect returned to finish her off,” Galvez said.

Reyes said yesterday that his men are still monitoring the suspect’s whereabouts but said that Intal is no longer at his house and is no longer reporting to his work at the Valenzuela branch of a telecommunications firm.