Three suspects are arrested a day after they stabbed a motorcycle-for-hire driver past midnight on Thursday, March 2 in Barangay Ipil, Carmen. | Carmen PS
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A nephew’s anger over his uncle for cutting electric power to his house may have been the trigger that led to the killing last March 2 of the uncle, a motorcycle-for-hire driver, in Barangay Ipil in Carmen town in northern Cebu.
Aldren Balibad, 23, then allegedly planned the killing with his two neighbors, Jemros Malbago, 22, and Mario Ramil Maningo, 51, who allegedly had also not been in good terms with Balibad’s uncle, Gilbert Basan.
Police Major Eric Gingoyon, chief of Carmen Police Station, said that their anger towards Basan blinded them of the fact that the victim had five children to take care of.
“Wa gae ni nila gi consider nga aduna nay lima ka bata, iyang asawa nagabroad, unya mao na ni ang nag [look after] sa iyang mga anak. Wa na nila hunahunaa kay tungod sa kalagot nila,” Gingoyon said.
(They did not even consider that the victim has five children, his wife is abroad, and he was the one looking after the children. They were not able to think of that because of their anger towards the victim.)
Basan’s wife is an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) based in Saudi Arabia as a domestic helper. That is why Basan was the one who took care of their children.
Investigation
Gingoyon said that when investigators started to gather information from the neighbors of the victim, Balibad was the first to be questioned.
He allegedly at first showed concern and regret for the tragic loss of his uncle.
But after the investigators gathered more information, they found out that Balibad and the victim were not in good terms and had previous arguments.
When the investigators went back to the nephew, Balibad, to ask him about this, Balibad, eventually admitted that he, together with two others, was responsible for the crime.
They were arrested around 3 p.m. on Friday, March 3, in Barangay Ipil.
“Wala ra na sila nitago. Actually, paghuman sa discover sa crime 2:30 a.m. or mga 3 a.m., kani si Aldren mao ni ang una nga natuktukan nga balay sa investigator. Siyay niabli sa pultahan and pa as if pa nga naunsa iyang uncle, kaluoy,” Gingoyoon said.
(He did not hide. Actually, after the crime was discovered at 2:30 a.m. or 3 a.m., Aldren was the first person that the investigator woke up. He opened the door and acted he did not know about the crime asking what happened to his uncle and telling the investigator, he pitied his uncle.)
Reason for the killing
“Na establish namo ang fact nga nagkabikil diay ni siya sa kadtong iyang pagumangkon, si Aldren. Nagkabikil ni sila kay nakiconnect ni siya [suspect] og kuryente unya wa man kabayad, so naputlan na ni niya [victim] mga last week or third week sa February,” Gingoyon said.
(We established the fact that the victim had argued with his nephew, Aldren. They had a falling out because Aldren connected with the electric power of his uncle’s house, and when Aldren failed to pay, the uncle cut the connection in the last week or third week of February.)
Gingoyon said that this could have been the reason for Balibad to commit the crime against his uncle.
The police chief also said that Malbago was the one who allegedly held and stabbed the victim.
Maningo served as the lookout and the one who informed the two that Basan was coming in the area at that time.
Gingoyon said that Maningo and Basan had also allegedly had previous arguments with the victim.
However, the police chief said he did not specifically know what caused these arguments.
He also said that the three men might have allegedly planned the killing a few days ago.
Sling bag, knife found
Police later recovered a 14-inch slaughter knife, which could be the murder weapon, and the blue sling bag of the victim containing P34,820, a brown wallet, eyeglasses, assorted IDs, assorted keys, and other documents.
The sling bag was recovered below a cliff while the knife was recovered 50 meters away from the bag.
The cliff where the sling bag and knife were found was about a kilometer away from the crime scene.
Malbago reportedly was the one who threw these items there after committing the crime.
Carmen police are set to file murder complaints against the three on Monday, March 6. The three suspects were detained at the Carmen Police Station pending the filing of charges.
Carmen is a third class municipality of the province of Cebu, which is located 42 kilometers north of Cebu City.
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