Tense homecoming for Jane’s remains

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — After weeks of waiting, the remains of murdered Filipina maid Jane Parangan-La Puebla finally arrived home yesterday.

The homecoming was, however, touchy as her relatives could not agree on where to hold her wake.

Before dawn yesterday, relatives and neighbors sympathetic to La Puebla’s mother, Paulina, barricaded the national highway in Barangay Almaguer in Bambang town here where the convoy carrying her remains would pass through.

The convoy, escorted by officials from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), who assumed responsibility over the remains, was on its way to Bagabag town when La Puebla’s relatives, supporters as well as local officials blocked it.

After a two-hour stand-off between La Puebla’s mother and her husband Cruzaldo, their respective relatives and supporters, a compromise agreement was reached between the two parties.

The agreement provided an equal share of wake time. From her mother’s home in Barangay Almaguer, the remains shall be transferred to her husband’s residence in Barangay Tuao, Bagabag at 3 p.m. today.

The interment will also be held in Bagabag where Jane, together with her younger sister, were raised.

To assure that the deal was binding, human rights lawyer Ernesto Salunat from Solano town notarized the agreement between the two parties.

DOTC spokesman Thompson Lantion and Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chairman Dante Jimenez, who both escorted the remains all the way from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to this town served as witnesses along with Bambang Mayor Pepito Balgos.

Before the agreement was reached, Cruzaldo, who is not in good terms with his in-laws, insisted that he has rights of custody of the remains being the husband, as mandated by the Family Code.

From Manila, Bambang is nearer by 30 kilometers than Bagabag, passing though this town.

Former Bagabag Mayor Victor Castillo, together with his wife, incumbent Vice Mayor Lita Castillo, said that they would accompany the Parangan and La Puebla families today to fetch the remains in Bambang as agreed upon in the compromise deal.