‘HE IS INNOCENT’

Family of slain Milagros Lapatha believes her son, Jonieto, did not kill his mother

Dili na niya mahimo. (He could not do it).”

In a sudden turn of events, the family of the slain 73-year-old Milagros Lapatha dismissed the possibility that the victim’s son Jonieto had a hand in the crime.

After a careful examination of what had happened, Lapatha’s husband Nelson, a retired soldier, said they realized that his 38-year-old son could not have killed his own mother.

Nelson, a retired member of the Philippine Army’s Special Forces Regiment (Airborne), arrived home from Iloilo yesterday morning and immediately talked to Jonieto (not Jonito as earlier reported by the police) at the stockade of the Pardo Police Station.

The 66-year-old father said his son was innocent and he believed everything that Jonieto told him.

“Mogamit lang na siya. Pero hindi niya magawang patayin ang sarili niyang ina (My son is using illegal drugs but I don’t think he can kill his own mother),” said Nelson who spoke in Cebuano and Tagalog in an interview with Cebu Daily News.

“Nanumpa siya na hindi niya magagawa iyon. Naniniwala ako sa kanya. Alam ko nagsasabi siya ng totoo (He swore to me that he did not kill his mother. I believed him. I know he was telling the truth),” he added.

Jonieto’s three sisters also stood by him, while his other brother, who is about to return home from his work abroad, has yet to issue a statement.

Police arrested Jonieto after he was accused by a neighbor, Joshua Ortiz, of killing Milagros inside an abandoned house in Barangay Cogon-Pardo, Cebu City on Monday evening.

Jonieto, who reportedly has been using shabu and nubain for about two decades already, allegedly hit his mother with a piece of wood before he finished her off by striking the head with a rock. Thereafter, he reportedly took P32,000 of his mother’s money that he allegedly used to pay his debt to his illegal drugs supplier.

Ortiz was also arrested after he admitted involvement in the crime, claiming he helped Jonieto carry the body of Milagros to the abandoned house some 50 meters from the Lapatha (not Lapata as earlier reported by the police) residence.

Parricide charges will be filed today against Jonieto while Ortiz will be facing murder charges before the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office.

Blood is thicker

Senior Insp. Robert Lucernas, chief of the Pardo Police Station, understood the predicaments of the victim’s family, but said they have to implead Jonieto in the case because the latter was identified by Ortiz as the person behind the killing.

“Kadugo man gud nila ang biktima mao nga nakasulti sila niana. Apan wala man na sila didto pagkahitabo samtang si Ortiz anaa didto (They have blood relations with the suspect and so we expected them to make statements in his defense. But none of them was present when the victim was killed. Ortiz, on the other hand, was there),” he told CDN.

Lucernas said Ortiz was expected to execute an extrajudicial confession to make formal his admissions.

“We are just doing our job. It would be all up to the prosecutor or the court to determine whether or not Jonieto participated in killing his mother,” he said.

Aside from Ortiz’s confession, Lucernas said they have no other evidence against the suspects.

But the police station chief said they believed they have a strong case against the two suspects.

No drug tests

The police failed to let Jonieto and Ortiz undergo drug tests after the Regional Crime Laboratory refused to conduct the procedure because no illegal substances were taken from the two suspects during their arrest.

“All we could do now is to file the charges against the suspects,” said Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), in a separate interview.

Like Lucernas, Taliño believed Jonieto, a drug addict, killed his mother.

“Walang pinipili itong mga drug addicts. Kahit kamag-anak o kaibigan ay kanilang pinapatay. Kaya tayo concern sa problem natin sa illegal drugs dahil bata man o matanda ay magiging biktima nito (Drug addicts do not choose their victims. They can kill their relatives or friends. That has been the reason why the police are concerned about solving the problem on illegal drugs, which destroy the young or the old),” he said.

Nelson, a native of Iloilo, said he has been enjoining Jonieto to stop using illegal drugs but his advice fell on deaf ears.

Nelson and Milagros got married in the early ’80s, less than 10 years after the latter’s first husband died.

Milagros, who had a small piggery and a sari-sari store, has a daughter from her first marriage. She and Nelson have four children.

Shocked

Milagros’s eldest daughter Ruby, 51, said she was shocked when she learned that her mother was killed.

“Nakalitan gyud ko. Inahan gud na namo (I was really shocked. Of course, the victim is our mother),” she said.

Ruby said Jonieto would usually berate and kick their mother every time she would refuse to give him money.

“Pero pinangga man na niya si mama. Iya gani na nga labanan si mama kon dunay makalalis (But Jonieto loved mama. He would defend my mother from people who had argued with her),” she said.

Cherrie, 35, who the other day was emotional about her brother’s involvement in their mother’s death, was calmer yesterday and also now raised doubt that their brother could kill their mother.

She recalled seeing Jonieto arrive home at around 10 p.m. last Monday, bringing with him empty plastic bottles which he collected from downtown Cebu City to be recycled and sold.

Milagros was believed to have been killed at around 7 p.m. on Monday.

Cherrie and her siblings now believed that Ortiz was the person who killed their mother.

“Iya (Ortiz) lang na nga gisakyan ang pagka-drug addict sa among igsoon. Kahibaw man siya nga sigehan og harass ni Jonieto si mama so dali ra niya ni nga maduot (Ortiz knew my brother is a drug addict. He used it to pin him down. JOrtiz also had knowledge about how Jonieto harassed my mother whenever he asked for money. Ortiz knew he could easily accuse my brother of killing our mother),” he said.

Her other sibling, Jingle, said she was uneasy every time she saw Ortiz.

“Mokusog gyud ang akong heartbeat. (My heart usually beat fast when I saw him),” she said.

Jingle, 37, said Ortiz was not trustworthy and Jonieto could not have killed their mother.

Justice

She said their family is hoping justice will soon be served.

“Grabe ang kamatayon sa among mama. Brutal kaayo (The manner with which our mother was killed was too much. It was so brutal),” Jingle said.

In an earlier interview, Ortiz said Jonieto brought the victim to an abandoned house in Barangay Cogon Pardo while it was raining last Monday evening.

Jonieto, he said, then hit the victim’s head with a piece of wood and later with a rock.

Ortiz said his participation in the crime was only to tie the victim’s hands with a plastic straw.

Milagros was lying on his back, covered with blanket and sack, when the police found her body.