MANILA, Philippines - The mother of Angelica Jane Yap, popularly known as “Pastillas Girl” on ABS-CBN’s “Showtime” variety show, was gunned down in Caloocan City Sunday night.
Teresa Hernandez, 43, a member of Barangay 127’s council, attended Sunday mass with her younger daughter, CJ, and a niece and went to a canteen run by her best friend. They placed orders for barbecue and were talking when Hernandez was attacked.
The assailant, a man wearing a baseball cap and clad in a denim jacket, was already in the canteen, located at the intersection of Tagaytay and Cabatuan streets, when the victim arrived, said Guillermo Hernandez, an older brother of the victim.
He said the assailant shot his sister at close range in the back of the head at around 9:20 p.m. then fled on a motorcycle.
“My sister bent forward on the table and almost fell to the ground. My niece briefly caught her and tried to break her fall but eventually my sister fell to the ground,” Hernandez said.
He believes the killing was planned because the assailant may have known of his sister’s routine, which was to have dinner at her friend’s canteen on Sundays.
Guillermo said it could not have been robbery since the assailant did not take anything from his sister. He refused to state a motive for the murder.
The incident was caught by the barangay’s closed-circuit television camera.
Hernandez died at the Chinese General Hospital shortly before midnight Sunday.
Guillermo was at the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Manila yesterday morning while the NBI autopsied Hernandez’s body.
Guillermo said his sister’s killer used a 9mm pistol because a slug of this caliber was found at the crime scene.
Death threats
A relative, Tumping Fabian, said Hernandez received a lot of text messages threatening her and telling her she would be dead before Christmas but she ignored them.
A person close to the victim, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they believe the killing is not related to her job as a barangay official.
“There were talks that Teteng (the victim’s nickname), who was separated from her husband, had a younger boyfriend who is a seaman. When she decided to break up with him, the guy reportedly got mad,” the source said.
Another relative said Hernandez wanted to break up with her boyfriend “because he was always jealous and his tantrums would often lead to their quarrel.”
Chief Inspector Ilustre Mendoza, Caloocan police investigation chief, said they will not leave any stone unturned.
Key witness?
The canteen’s owner, Herman Domingo, said the assailant introduced himself as an intelligence officer and that he was there to look for some drug pushers, according to a GMA News report.
A source said the assailant went to the canteen a few minutes before the victim and her companions arrived.
The man shot Hernandez as Domingo’s back was turned, the source said.