BACOLOD CLAN MASSACRE: Robbery, multiple homicide raps poised vs main suspect

BACOLOD CITY – The city police are poised to file eight counts of robbery with multiple homicide against the principal suspect in the massacre of six members of a prominent haciendero family and their two housemaids at their sprawling residence here last Sunday.

This developed as the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force has been ordered to assist the investigation of Task Force Rivilla, headed by Bacolod City police chief Amado Marquez, which was given 72 hours starting Sunday to arrest 20-year-old Bemon Gallo, a houseboy of the Rivilla clan.

Gallo’s mother, Monica, however, insisted on his son’s innocence, saying he could not have stabbed and hacked to death couple Carlos and Florinda Rivilla, their son Guillermo Benrico, grandsons Mark Anthony, Guillermo Benrico Jr. and John Michael, and housemaids Ritchel Gonzales and Dolores Ogatis.

Monica Gallo told Silay police chief Ricardo de la Paz that Bemon could not afford to do such a heinous crime because he loved the three Rivilla grandchildren so much.

She said she will surrender his son as soon as he comes home. The Gallos hail from Silay City.

The Rivillas’ family driver, Rudy Alfonso, who survived the killings, identified Gallo as the one who hacked him in the neck and back with a scythe when he reported for work Sunday morning.

Alfonso managed to flee and sought help from the security guards of the Cojuangcos’ house across the street.

Bemon’s elder brother Erwin admitted to De la Paz that his sibling had resented Benrico’s firing of his girlfriend, a certain Remy, a housemaid of the Rivillas.

De la Paz said Bemon confided to his brother that Benrico caught him and his girlfriend hugging in the house, and then and there, immediately fired Remy. Bemon reportedly wanted to go with his girlfriend, but Benrico reportedly prevented him.

Meanwhile, the Rivilla family has appealed to the media to let them grieve privately. The chapel, where the victims’ remains lie in state, has been off-limits to members of the local press.

The eldest Rivilla grandson, Carlos Benedict IV, said seeing their family members bathed in their own blood on local and national television is too much for them to endure.

"Death is private. We don’t want more footages shown. The media did enough already by torturing the family by airing and publishing the crime scene," he added.

The bodies of the two housemaids also lie in state at the Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels here. Gonzales’ mother Vivencia said she will bury her daughter in their native Isabela town, 84 kilometers south of this city.

Vivencia said she was not aware that her youngest daughter worked for the Rivilla family, and that she learned of her death from another daughter, Gina.

"I wish I could have died in her place. She is too young to die," Vivencia said.