MANILA, Philippines—Son if you are guilty, please surrender.
This was the teary-eyed plea made by Marlene Aguilar, the mother of the suspected killer of a Malacañang official’s son, as she appeared Friday at the National Bureau of Investigation.
Aguilar, who was invited for questioning by NBI Special Action Unit (SAU) chief and lawyer Angelito Magno, told reporters that she likewise has no idea of where her son Jason Ivler is.
She said they have not communicated since she last saw him the morning after Renato Victor Ebarle Jr., the son and namesake of an official of the Office of the Presidential Chief of Staff, was killed.
In a statement, she claimed that the accusation against Ivler stemmed from her authorship of a book “that denounces America and its killing machine.”
“For the past two years, my immediate family and I have been hunted and haunted by certain factions of the American killing machine because of my defiance against their war mongering, because of my book,” Aguilar claimed.
She further alleged that a raid was conducted on her home at Blue Ridge A in Quezon City.
“On the day I launched my book, Warriors of Heaven, on Saturday, November 21, my home was raided by five vehicles of heavily armed men including SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) Team. On the same day, my son Jason Ivler was in the headlines of all newspapers in the Philippines. The headlines claimed that he had murdered someone in public,” she narrated.
Aguilar questioned the expedient manner of the investigation conducted by authorities to identify her son as the culprit behind Ebarle’s killing.
She claimed that she wrote the book purportedly to expose America’s need “to kill or control those who would question,” including her, to “free people from ignorance” and “open their eyes to the truth.”
“I believe that the only way I can save my son’s life is by stepping forward. Though I have not yet been questioned … I have not been challenged. Let it be known, that I am, as I always have been, ready to speak out openly against the US and the Philippine government and their bed,” Aguilar concluded.
She maintained that Ivler could not have killed Ebarle and act “normal” the morning after, adding that she had breakfast with her son on Nov. 19 at a coffee shop in Corinthian Gardens, Quezon City. It was the last time, she claimed, she saw him.
“I am sorry for the boy who died,” she told reporters, referring to Ebarle Jr.
The NBI-SAU chief told the Inquirer that Aguilar denied hiding her son and denied knowing his whereabouts.
“She said that the reason why the Honda CRV ended up in Marikina City was because her brother-in-law had borrowed the vehicle, something that he usually did. She said that she had asked a driver to take the vehicle to him,” Magno pointed out.
He further stressed that based on Aguilar’s statement, when she last saw Ivler, her son never mentioned anything about having committed a crime and did not have his things with him.
“She said it was impossible for her son to have committed a crime because he acted normally and that she found out about his involvement in Ebarle’s shooting in the news,” Magno told the Inquirer.
Follow-up operations, he assured, are continuing for Ivler’s arrest.
Ebarle was shot to death on November 18 after his Toyota Land Cruiser figured in a near-collision with a blue Honda CRV with diplomatic license plates 20903 at the corner of Boni Serrano and Granada Streets in Quezon City. The diplomatic plates were later traced by authorities to Asian Development Bank executive Stephen Pollard, Aguilar’s British husband and Ivler’s stepfather.
Ebarle Jr. was shot repeatedly by the driver of the Honda CRV, believed to have been Ivler, who immediately fled after the incident.
