Jealous cabbie kills teacher

Police nabbed yesterday a 52-year-old taxi driver who admitted killing a 36-year-old elementary teacher then dumping her body under the Jones Bridge in Ermita, Manila last Thursday.

Police initially did not know the identity of the victim, who was found with puncture wounds but with her gold necklace and earings and three silver rings intact.

The Manila police homicide investigators were able to identify the victim as Mercedita Colon, 36, a teacher at the Payatas Elementary School and a regular tenant of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA)’s Gwapo Hotel in Port Area, Manila.

According to Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr., who heads the homicide section of the Manila Police District, witnesses saw the victim being forced into a “Rey Miles” taxicab (PWV-762) by her live-in partner, taxi driver Cesar Balmes, at midnight Thursday.

“Our witnesses are one in saying that the suspect was mad at the victim over her rumored boyfriends. One of them saw the suspect punch the victim on the chin when she refused to go with him,” Arevalo said.      

Not knowing that police had a lead on him, Balmes used Colon’s cell phone and texted the victim’s friends at the Gwapo Hotel that she was allowing her live-in partner to get her belongings at the hotel since she is on vacation in Boracay. Balmes was caught by SPO4 Ed Paterno when he arrived at the hotel.

At the police headquarters, Balmes said he parked his taxicab at the Rizal Park grandstand and confronted the victim about her rumored boyfriends. Balmes said he blacked out when the victim kicked him while they were in the cab. He said he got hold of a screwdriver and repeatedly stabbed the victim. When he came to his senses, Colon was already dead. He dumped her body under the bridge and sped away.

Balmes said he does not regret killing Colon, who was able to work as a domestic helper in Qatar and Singapore through his financial help, because she continued her alleged relationships with other men every time she was in the country.

Balmes said Colon bore him a son, now five years old, since they started living together after he met her in Ormoc City. He said the victim was staying at the hotel to avoid his wife.