Domestic violence, ‘crimes of passion’ mar last year

CEBU, Philippines - Last year also saw some gruesome killings in Cebu, with most of them done reportedly out of hatred towards family members, relatives, spouses, or lovers, and even mere acquaintances.

Three days before Valentine’s Day, security guard Kenneth Bersales, 34, lost his plans to have a family date after he shot his wife when he saw her with another man inside a KTV bar in Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.

Bersales was arrested in a hot pursuit operation after killing Perceval Casas, 41, and shooting and hitting his wife, Catherine, 41, in the back of her head. Casas died on the spot while Catherine was rushed to the hospital.

Love and jealousy were seen by the police as the motives behind the attack. Catherine reportedly did not know that Bersales, with whom she had been already estranged because of “marital issues,” worked at an establishment right across the KTV bar she and Casas went to.

Bersales allegedly tried to win his wife back by sending her text messages everyday but received no reply at all until he saw her with Casas.

Father’s day turns bloody

In June 20, three children aged 13, 11 and four had an unforgettable Father’s Day after they witnessed their father hammer their mother to death before killing himself, inside their house at Sitio Upper Green Valley, Barangay Lahug, Cebu City.

The 11-year-old said he saw his father Jerome Sanchez, 37, strike the head of her mother Josephine Pausal, 37, with a hammer several times. He said his father even tried to stab his four-year-old brother, but he was luckily able to push their father away.

The middle child said before the incident, his father would always get jealous whenever his mother goes out to sell food, adding that his father had been always suspicious that his wife was with someone else.

The boy also admitted that he once saw his father and some others sniffing shabu behind their house. Jerome’s mother, Maria Ana, also admitted that her son uses illegal drugs.

The couple would allegedly often fight because of money. The grandmother of the kids, who was a witness to the turbulent relationship of the couple, said Jerome did not have a stable job and was just a carpenter who relied on occasional contracts.

She said Josephine kept on nagging Jerome to get a steady job, which could be a reason that pushed the suspect to commit the crime.

Woman killed  by brother-in-law

Just the following day, 28-year-old Manilyn Saballa, who had gone missing after a fire gutted her rented house in Poblacion, Talisay City, Cebu was found dead under the house, naked and covered in bruises.

Police believed that Alfonso Saballa, the elder brother of Manilyn’s husband, tried to rape the victim, who is a mother of two, before murdering her and set the house on fire to hide the crime. Manilyn’s husband is an overseas worker who was still abroad at the time of the murder.

Alfonso’s name surfaced in the investigation after the victim’s sister, Jessa Lopez, who lives with the victim, said she saw the suspect in her room prior to the incident.

She said she was awakened at midnight and noticed that her hair was already on fire. She then saw the suspect in her room and when she tried to escape from the flames, the suspect punched her in the face, causing her to lose consciousness. Luckily, neighbors noticed the fire and put it out.

A day after the incident, Alfonso was arrested. He admitted killing his sister-in-law but denied sexually assaulting her. He said the clothes of the victim just got tangled when he tried to throw her body under the house.

Alfonso said he killed Manilyn because the latter allegedly always interfered in his personal life by telling his mother about his involvement in illegal drugs.

Mother killed by boyfriend

Two days later, what was first reported to the police as a suicide alarm turned out to be a murder case after the six-year-old son of the alleged suicide victim said he saw the boyfriend of his mother tie a rope around her neck then hanged her to the ceiling as she appeared to be unresponsive.

Romeo Castro, alias “Jessie”, 52, a resident of Barangay Labangon, Cebu City, was later arrested after doubts surfaced about the death of Scarlet Debalucos, 30, the suspect’s neighbor and alleged girlfriend.

Castro admitted having a turbulent relationship with the victim who allegedly always got jealous, but said he never raised a hand against her.

However, police got other witnesses who saw Castro come out from Debalucos’ house prior to the discovery of her body. This statement coincided with that of the son, thus, Castro was charged with murder.

Mother and daughter found inside septic tank

On August 20, a 37-year-old woman and her 11-year-old daughter were found dead inside the septic tank of their house at Deca Homes, Barangay Tungkil, Minglanilla, Cebu.

They were allegedly murdered by three men, who allegedly owed victim Virginia Sharpe money. The suspects were actually hired by Sharpe to fix her house.

The bodies of Sharpe and her daughter Meca Ella were found by the police together with the barangay officials after some of the victims’ friends reported the mother and daughter to be missing for almost a week already. Only the two lived in their house since Virginia’s husband was in London.

Laborers Manuel Labrador, Espelito Ricamora, and George Baquiran, of Lower Calajoan, Minglanilla, were then arrested by the police after investigation revealed that the victim lent money to the suspects, but when she demanded payment from the three, they could not pay her, which was why they killed her and her daughter.

Student shot dead by live-in partner

On August 24, a 20-year-old student was found dead along with her 28-year-old live-in partner at C. Padilla Street, Barangay San Nicolas Proper, Cebu City.

Both Meljohn Niel Olmedo, an engineer working as a drafter at Cebu I.T. Park in Barangay Apas, and his girlfriend Jennylyn Avila, a hospitality management student of the Asian College of Technology, bore gunshot wounds to the head when found already lifeless inside their room.

Investigation revealed that jealousy prompted Olmedo to shoot Avila dead before he killed himself.

Investigators said Olmedo and Avila had been fighting weeks before the incident allegedly because Avila was believed to be having an affair with another man.

Toddler beaten to death

Last September 14, in Barangay Tunghaan, Talisay City, Cebu, a two-year-old girl was allegedly beaten to death by her stepfather, who was allegedly under the influence of illegal drugs.

Based on the assessment of the investigators, the toddler, Ritsanly Donaire, suffered severe bruises in her face and body. Some of the girl’s teeth were missing and her mouth was injured.

The stepfather, Nicodemo Deloy, 30, was then arrested together with the victim’s mother, Ailee Donaire, who allegedly tried to cover up the crime.

The couple first told their neighbors that Ritsanly died of pneumonia. However, the neighbors got suspicious and asked for police assistance after seeing how battered the body of the child and considering they already knew how Deloy used to treat the child.

Investigation also revealed that another witness saw how Deloy mauled the child until the latter went unconscious. Deloy was then charged for murder in relation to child abuse while the mother also faced a case for obstruction of justice.

Ma Hacks son, 7

On September 29, a seven-year-old boy was wounded on his elbow after his mother allegedly hacked him with a kitchen knife for sleeping during classes in Daanbantayan, Cebu.

Investigation revealed that the woman received information that her son would always sleep in class and would not heed the teacher’s instructions. She allegedly saw this for herself when she went to her son’s school to pay some fees. In anger, she forced her son home despite the class still ongoing.

At their house, she reportedly got a 13-inch kitchen knife and told her son she might as well cut his arm off saying that “it’s useless.” Fortunately, the suspect’s 18-year-old sister saw what was happening and took the knife away.

The mother later alleged that she was only frustrated at that time because none of her customers paid their debt on the ready-to-wear items she was selling. She was released the next day after her son and her husband resisted from filing a case against her.

Girls hacked dead

On the night of October 26, two sleeping girls were hacked dead, their heads almost severed allegedly by their uncle who also killed himself by slitting his neck with a bolo, in Barangay Napo, Carcar City, Cebu.

Carcar City police identified the victims as Rosalyn Mangyao, 16, and her sister Chairmain, 11. Suspect Domingo, 29, was also found dead apparently after he committed suicide.

Police authorities suspected that Domingo was under the influence of illegal drugs when he committed the crime. He might have come back to his senses and killed himself after seeing what he did to his nieces.

Domingo was released from prison on probation just the previous after he was convicted for possessing an unlicensed firearm he allegedly used to hold a relative hostage last year.

Woman found dead inside car

Three days later, residents of Almendras Street in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City woke up to the grisly discovery of a 31-year-old woman’s body inside a car - her hands and feet bound with a packaging tape and her head covered with a cloth.

The woman inside the green Kia Picanto, which is owned by her estranged husband, was later identified as Agnelen Uy of Baywalk, Deca Homes in Talisay City, Cebu. She had a gunshot wound to the left side of her head under her ear.

Wayne Uy, Agnelen’s husband, was then interrogated by the police about her death. He was reportedly seen in the car with the victim while talking about their annulment before the discovery of the victim’s death.

The husband, who denied having anything to do with the crime, alleged that he and Agnelen were driving around North Reclamation Area in the car when two men blocked them and stole the car with Agnelen still inside.

He reported to the police station about what allegedly happened and said he heard about the news about her death the following morning.

In the course of the investigation, police invited some of Wayne’s employees in his lending business for questioning, in which one of them said in a sworn statement that the husband made him monitor Agnelen until she reached their house in Urban Deca Homes in Mandaue City.

Police said video footages gathered from the alleged site of the kidnapping at the North Reclamation Area contradicted Uy’s statement that it happened at about 7 p.m. as he was seen in the area two hours earlier.

Based on circumstantial evidence, police filed parricide charges against the businessman and four others who were believed to be his cohorts.

Street kid ‘mauled’ dead

Fuente Police chief Wildemar Tiu and his personnel were also put in the limelight last year after they were accused of mauling11-year-old street dweller Chastity Mirabiles.

Mirabiles collapsed and died in front of a business establishment along Mango Avenue on April 6, a day after she and 13 others were allegedly picked up by Fuente Police personnel allegedly led by Tiu.

Based on the autopsy report of NBI-7 medico legal officer Dr. Rene Cam, Mirabiles died from “blunt traumatic injuries.”

But Tiu, who just returned from a month-long vacation in the United States on June 3, belied the allegation saying that he and his personnel are not responsible for the child’s sudden death.

A day after Mirabiles died, Tiu volunteered himself to be relieved from his post. He was replaced by Senior Inspector David Señor and was then assigned to CCPO administration office and later to Police Regional Office-7.

Tiu is facing criminal and administrative charges before the Office of the Ombudsman for violation of Presidential Order No. 1829 that penalizes the obstruction of apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders and for grave misconduct, while police officers 2 Raymonito Mesa and Manuel Luis Sejano are facing charges for violation of Article 248 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Republic Act 7610, otherwise known as the child abuse law, for allegedly conspiring in the commission of the Mirabiles’ murder. The two are also facing administrative charges for grave misconduct.

Montebon murder case

Last September 15, a 17-year-old college student Karen Kaye Montebon, was found dead inside her room by her father who had just arrived from work at their house in Corinthian’s Subdivision in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City. Some of her items appeared to have been stolen.

Days later, her friend Jennalyn Soon, showed up to police and said her live-in partner, Ruben “Gorio” Fernandez had the missing items and was the one who killed Montebon. She allegedly did it saying her conscience bothered her.

Fernandez was later gunned down in Getafe, Bohol, shortly before policemen who pursued him could reach the island. With this police declared the case already closed.

However, police later found out that Soon knew about the crime as residents from Bohol reported witnessing them together arrive from Cebu with the missing items. She was then charged for robbery.   (FREEMAN)