MANILA, Philippines -- The rain stopped and the sun shone briefly as the woman killed Mafia-style in 2007 was laid to rest yesterday at the Manila Memorial Park in Sucat, Parañaque City.

The family of Ruby Rose Barrameda-Jimenez pushed through with the burial despite the absence of her two young daughters. The funeral procession turned into a small protest march, with a number of mourners carrying placards with the messages ?Justice for Ruby Rose? and ?No to senseless killings.?

It was as if the sky was watching, said a friend of Ruby Rose?s who joined some 500 other mourners in escorting the remains from the Funeraria Paz building inside Manila Memorial to the gravesite.

Almost everyone in attendance was wearing a white T-shirt marked ?Justice for Ruby Rose Jimenez,? with the surname crossed out.

?You will now be at peace. We love you so much, remember that,? Ruby Rose?s sister, actress and former beauty queen Rochelle Barrameda, said between sobs as she embraced the closed casket.

The retrieval of Ruby Rose?s remains and the discovery of the manner of her death shocked even veteran police investigators last week.

The ?almost perfect crime? came to light through the testimony of Manuel Montero, one of the suspects, who spoke of how Ruby Rose was handcuffed and gagged with packaging tape before being strangled with a steel wire and cemented in a drum, which was then sealed in a steel case and dropped in the waters off Navotas.

Father?s promise

The grieving father, Roberto Barrameda, promised Ruby Rose that the family would continue to seek justice.

?We?re sorry that your daughters are not here to see you. But you must understand their situation right now,? Barrameda said in the direction of his daughter?s casket.

Hours before the burial, Judge Gloria Aglugub of Las Piñas Regional Trial Court Branch 254 denied the Barramedas? petition to allow Ruby Rose?s children to visit the wake.

The children are in the custody of their father, Manuel Jimenez III, who was estranged from their mother.

The Barramedas stood still as the casket was blessed by a priest. The wails grew louder as it was lowered into the ground.

Anna Mopera, a college friend of Ruby Rose?s, said she knew her as a happy person.

?She was very happy with her family, especially her two kids. We thought that happiness would be for a lifetime,? Mopera said.

The Barramedas said that with Ruby Rose?s burial done with, they would focus on the preliminary investigation of the murder charges filed against Jimenez III?s father Manuel Jimenez Jr., his uncle Lope Jimenez, Eric Fernandez, Spike Discalzo, Roberto Ponce, Rudy dela Cruz and Montero at the Department of Justice.

Lope Jimenez is the owner of Buena Suerte Jimenez Fishing and Trading Corp. It was in the corporation?s office that Ruby Rose was killed, according to Montero.

Possible involvement

Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales, director of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said investigators were studying all angles and other circumstantial evidence that could implicate Jimenez III, who purportedly threatened Ruby Rose before she went missing in March 2007.

?So far we have yet to submit an update [in the charges]. I have asked our investigators to check if there are still other things we need to know to complete the case,? Rosales said.

He said the NCRPO would soon come up with a supplemental statement to be submitted to the justice department.

Not mentioned by witness

Jimenez III was not listed in the charge sheet because he was not mentioned by Montero.

But Roberto Barrameda said in an interview that he wanted his son-in-law included in the charges.

?We were informed by the police that it was possible he could be charged as well,? Barrameda said.

In an earlier interview, Ruby Rose?s mother Asuncion Barrameda told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Jimenez III had threatened to kill her daughter during a fight.

The Jimenezes have disclaimed involvement in the crime.