Son who ate mother’s entrails charged with parricide – Negros police

NEGROS ORIENTAL, Philippines – Police authorities filed a parricide case against a suspected drug-crazed son who may have raped and stabbed to death his widowed mother, then ate her entrails raw and gouged out her eye on Monday, August 28.

It is a crime that has sent shockwaves among the people of Negros Island and triggered a tsunami of online debates over a state-sponsored war on drugs.

Senior Inspector Nelson Bindaño Lamoco, chief of police of Sibulan town in Negros Oriental, told Rappler on Tuesday, August 29, that Roger Barrera Manaban, 52, who slaughtered his own mother, 86-year-old Josefina Barrera Manaban, using a 12-inch long improvised knife, will be subjected to drug testing at the crime laboratory of Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office on Wednesday.

In a phone interview, Lamoco disclosed that both the police and the siblings of Josefina suspect Roger, who left Negros years ago and had returned to the province only last year, was “possibly high on illegal drugs”, based on the suspect’s unusual behavior and gestures a day before the killing happened.

According to Lamoco, quoting testimonies by Roger’s close relatives, the suspect had been living a nomad’s life after he returned to Negros Oriental from Davao City, where his wife and his two kids live.

According to the suspect’s sibling, Manaban underwent treatment in a mental institution the previous year.

On Saturday afternoon, August 27, Roger arrived at his mother’s house in Barangay Bolocboloc, Sibulan. The next day, the unthinkable happened, which in the words of Lamoco was “unheard of” in all his years of police work.

In a text message to Rappler, village chief Dennis Omoso said they could not confirm whether the suspect was a drug user since it was only last Saturday when barangay officials of Bolocboloc saw Roger for the first time.

“We received an alarm call in our station at around 7 am and we went to the place of concern where we learned that the crime had been committed possibly at around 6 am. We immediately collared the suspect, who was drenched in blood at that time,” recounted Lamoco in Bisaya language.

The suspect, after killing his mother, tried to flee and even tried to snatch a 2-year-old child as his hostage, but the attempt was foiled due to the quick intervention by responding neighbors. Police said residents were alarmed seeing Roger’s body and face soaked in blood.

Upon checking Josefina’s house, police found a lifeless woman, her body lying on the wooden floor with her clothes removed, her innards splattered on the floor, and one of her eyes already gouged out, witnesses said.

An extrajudicial confession of the suspect, Lamoco said, revealed he had attempted to rape his own mother, then killed her by stabbing and slicing her body and face multiple times. 

“Murag ni siya nasudlon ug demonyo. Nagsalimuang kong moestorya. Dili consistent. Siga ug pula ang iyang mga mata ug sige pangagot ang baba,” said Lamoco of the suspect. (He seemed to have been possessed by a demon. He was hallucinating when he talked. His statements were inconsistent. His eyes were bloody red, and he was acting as if he was perpetually chewing something.)

“Aron masuta kung drug user ni siya, atong ipa-drug test kay mao say request sa mga tawo. Posible pud nga nalisuan lang ni siya sa iyang maayong pangisip,” the police chief said. (In order to find out whether he was a drug user, we will subject him to a drug test, as requested by the public. It is also possible that he had lost his mind).

Police said Josefina was laid to rest at the town’s public cemetery Tuesday, as the people of Sibulan and neighboring towns are still reeling from shock and disbelief.

Lomoco told Rappler that though Roger’s kin had expressed wishes of seeing the suspect killed last Monday without necessarily apprehending him, the police chief said they still have to abide by what the law says on arresting a crime suspect. – with reports from Marchel Espina/Rappler.com