2 arrested for 2-year-old girl’s slay

MANILA, Philippines - A man and his partner were arrested Sunday for reportedly killing their two-year-old goddaughter in Caloocan City.

Edwin Arcala and Jefrel Tubiano were apprehended after the girl’s mother, Lea Gonzales, sought police assistance Saturday night, according to Chief Inspector Avelino Protacio, who heads the Barugo, Caloocan City police station.

Gonzales told police she works as a salesperson in Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan and lives with the suspects, who baby-sat her daughter for P100 a day. They live in a fifth-floor unit of a residential building in Barangay 185, Malaria.

Gonzales, a single mother, said she last saw her daughter alive on Friday morning, before she went to work.

Slaps, punches

According to her affidavit, Gonzales saw Tubiano slap her daughter and Arcala punch the child before she went to work. When she asked them what happened, the two said it was an accident, Gonzales said.

She said she feared Arcala because he was reportedly a drug addict and a pusher. She said she was only forced to live with them because she had no one to take care of her daughter while she is at work.

At around noon on Friday, Gonzales said she received a text message from Arcala, telling her that her daughter was rushed to the Bermudez Hospital in Malaria because she had an accident.

The child was later transferred to the Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital. Due to a lack of equipment, she was moved to the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City, where she died Saturday morning due to a head injury.

Murder?

Arcala claimed that his goddaughter hit her head after falling from a stack of boxes. However, Gonzales told police she does not believe his story.

Gonzales said a neighbor had warned her on Friday before she went to work that she and her daughter should leave “if she wants her daughter safe.” The neighbor said Arcala and Tubiano reportedly hurt the child when Arcala is high on drugs.

Acting on Gonzales’ complaint, police officers raided the suspects’ apartment on Sunday morning and arrested Tubiano. Arcala escaped through the building’s fire exit.

However, Arcala was arrested hours later after an informant tipped off police officers when returned to the apartment to pick up their belongings.