BAÑOC
There are stories that we think we can only see in the movies. Until now, I find it difficult to believe that a husband, a professional, a high-ranking public official who comes from a respected family can commit, as alleged, the gruesome killing of his own wife, the mother of his very own son, the very woman who was once promised the moon and the stars.
In a bird’s-eye view, the newly established family of Bohol Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel and wife Mayor Gisela Bendong-Boniel — an awarded pilot — that was blessed with one child may have been perceived by many as an ideal one. The two were high-ranking public officials and perceived as financially stable. Their constituents may have looked at them as a model couple, until last Wednesday’s shocking story disproved that perception.
With their family standing in the community, most likely, many had invited them as wedding sponsors, especially by their constituents. Both of them, having been mayors, had officiated marriages in their office as they are allowed by law to do so. The paradox does not stop there.
Probably, when they gave messages during weddings, they were perceived as very credible. According to their friends, the couple were seen in public as happy, such that they did not have an idea that Boniel’s marriage was already in deep trouble.
I met Niño Boniel in a coffee shop near the Capitol building where I used to study during my law school days. He was a frequent visitor of the place at that time when he was not in politics yet. In fact, when he first ran as mayor in Bien Unido, Bohol, he let me hear his political jingle.
I don’t know much about him, considering that we only met in a coffee shop, but in our first meeting, he evoked an aura and personality of being a good person. He was friendly and approachable. Hence, I can hardly believe that he could have committed a heinous crime, if he did.
However, when I interviewed Mrs. Angela Leyson, a close friend of the late Mayor Gisela Boniel, over dyHP RMN Cebu, she cried while narrating that on Tuesday last week, she, her 17-year-old son and Mayor Gisela were invited to stay at Bien Unido Double Barrier Reef Dive Camp.
They arrived at the resort in the evening of that day. She and Mayor Gisela stayed at room 10 while her son at room 5. At 2 a.m. on the following day, Wednesday, six to eight men led by Board Member Boniel barged into their room. Mayor Gisela was brought by her husband while she was handcuffed and was ordered to board a vehicle together with her son, and they were driven away.
Leyson said it was the last time that she saw Gisela alive while she and her son were brought to Tubigon port and released by Boniel’s men. They boarded a boat to Cebu City and reported the incident to the police. Leyson said that the couple had been living in separate roofs for four months already due to irreconcilable differences.
PB Member Boniel, on the other hand, denied the allegations. His relative and alleged cohorts, however, pointed to him as having shot dead his very own wife. Thereafter, they placed her remains in a fish net with a rock weighing 30 kilos tied tightly to make sure that it would sink when they dumped it into the deep blue sea.
For now, these are all allegations. One thing is sure: the killing is gruesome. Even the most ordinary mind cannot grasp it.
With all due respect to the parties, considering that the cases are still pending before the prosecutor’s office, if indeed Boniel did it to his wife, it appears that he failed to do it perfectly or that, at first, he did not have the intention to kill his wife. Otherwise, from the very start he should not have allowed the witnesses to go back to Cebu alive.
He failed to do it perfectly, given the fact that the execution seemed poor such that he allowed Leyson, a living witness, to be brought to Tubigon port and board a boat in going back to Cebu. Or this may just prove that indeed there is no perfect crime.
It might also be that his intention was only to get his wife, confront her on marital issues and settle some disagreements, no matter how serious. Then there may have been a heated argument between them which, in a spur of a moment, led the husband to shoot his wife — a classic case of crime of passion.
For now, we could only speculate. Unless and until all available evidences are out and brought before the court of law, the truth will remain untold.
At any case, this is a very tragic incident involving a supposedly happy family. Justice must be served.