A man believed to be mentally unstable hacked and slashed the throats of his two nieces before slashing his own throat in barangay Napo, Carcar City, southern Cebu last Thursday night.
Sisters Rosalyn, 16, and Charmain Mangyao, 11, suffered multiple hack wounds in the body and neck.
The suspect, Domingo Mangyao, 29, was also found dead in the house with a wound in the neck.
The suspect used a bolo that the victims’ father, Ranulfo, had bought to slaughter a pig for the observance of the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
The suspect is Ranulfo’s brother. He was released only last Sept. 18 from jail, where he served a year and two months for taking his 10-year old nephew hostage last year.
Ranulfo’s two grandsons, Brylle Hermoso, 4, and Jay Lawrence Hermoso, 3, witnessed the incident. They were spared after they covered themselves with a big plastic basin.
The attack happened while Ranulfo and his wife, also named Rosalyn, were attending a prayer service for the 40th day observance of the death of a neighbor in sitio Kalangyawon.
When they arrived home at about 10 p.m., they were met by their two grandsons, who were crying and shouting about the killings.
Ranulfo said his wife first saw the body of Charmain sprawled on a mat in the ground floor. The girl’s neck was almost severed.
Ranulfo then went upstairs and saw the body of Rosalyn and Domingo.
Brylle told his grandparents that he immediately hid with Jay Lawrence. They covered their heads with a big plastic basin with a hole on the center.
Brylle said after attacking the two girls, Dominggo slashed his neck.
The Mangyao family lives in a house made up mostly of bamboo poles and sticks. A few steps up from the ground floor is a small room, where Rosalyn usually slept.
Domingo usually slept with Charmain at the ground floor.
Ranulfo said when they left, they had no inclination that something bad would happen that night.
He said Domingo also behaved normally.
Domingo was charged last year for illegal possession of firearm. But this was dismissed because Domingo was reportedly suffering from nervous breakdown when he took his nephew hostage.
The father of the hostage victim (another brother of Ranulfo and Domingo) did not file charges as the boy was not hurt.
“He (Domingo) was quiet most the time. I asked him if something was bothering him and I advised him to avoid thinking about bad things,” Ranulfo said in Cebuano.
Ranulfo said he suspected that his brother did not suffer from nervous breakdown but was using illegal drugs.
“(I really believed he was using illegal drugs because how could he kill his nieces like that?” he said.
Rosalyn was a Grade 9 pupil at the Kalangyawon National High School while Charmain was a Grade 5 pupil. They were the fifth and seventh of nine siblings.