Roger Amora is placed behind bars at the Pardo Police Precinct in Cebu City for stabning and wounding his 10-year-old daughter on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019./ Photo by Benjie Talisic, CDN Digital
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The timely arrival of policemen and village watchmen saved the life of ten-year-old Aiza (not her real name).
The girl, already wounded in the chest, was heard pleading for her life when responding policemen and barangay tanods barged inside her home, as her father was about to stab her again with a knife, according to a report released by the Pardo Police Precinct.
The girl is now confined at the city-run Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and her father, Roger Amora, 43, will face frustrated parricide charges, according to Chief Inspector Regino Maramag, chief of the Pardo police.
Maramag said the incident happened sometime around noon of Friday, January 4, at Amora’s residence in Sitio Palwa Maria, Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City.
The wife, fearing what would happen to her daughter, ran out of the house and called for help, said Maramag.
Based on witnesses account, the father appeared to be “not in his right mind” when he stabbed his daughter.
Maramag said he immediately dispatched a team when they got a call alerting the police about the commotion inside Amora’s house.
Accompanied by village watchmen in barging into the Amora home, the police were able to take the knife away from Amora and immediately rushed the bleeding girl to CCMC, Maramag said.
Amora, interviewed at dawn today by Cebu Daily News Digital while behind bars at the Pardo police stockage, denied he wanted to kill his daughter.
Amora claimed that at that time, it was his daughter who was holding a knife and was stabbing it on the wall because she allegedly got frustrated that she was not given food.
He said he went for the knife and tried to pry it out of her hand but in the struggle, she ended up getting stabbed in the chest.
“Nangayo man gud na ug pagkaon… akong anak kay gi gutom daw siya. Unya wa man nako matagai mao to nga iyang gi tusok-tusok ang pader,” Amora said.
But the police had a different account about what happened.
The responding policemen and Barangay tanods reported that when they arrived at the house, they heard the girl repeatedly crying out “ayaw Pa (Father, don’t)!”
They also found the father holding a blooded nine-inch knife that he allegedly used to stab his daughter.
Police seized the knife as evidence.
Aside from the frustrated parricide case, Amora would also be charged with violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Anti Child Abuse Law, Maramag said./elb