LAST Sunday turned out to be his last birthday when a farmer was beaten to death by his friend after a drinking spree in barangay Dugo-an, Sibonga, south Cebu.
Alejandro Maranga, 42, sustained severe head injuries and died on the scene.
Based on the initial police investigation, Maranga celebrated his birthday in an uncle’s house and went on a drinking spree with his friend Domingo Delos Reyes and his father Dulcesimo Delos Reyes.
Police said Maranga and the 41-year-old Domingo got drunk and a heated argument ensued.
“They (Maranga and Domingo) argued because Delos Reyes chided Maranga on his mismatched slippers,” Sibonga police SPO1 Antonio Francis said in Cebuano.
The victim was wearing a pair of white and red slippers.
Police said Maranga was advised by his uncle to go home.
Maranga left his uncle’s house but did not head home. Instead, he checked the nearby garden that he was tending.
Later, police said the victim went back to his uncle’s house and met a bound-for-home Domingo along the way.
Remembering their heated argument earlier, Maranga confronted Domingo and drew out a small bolo. He challenged Domingo to a fight.
Domingo looked around for something to defend himself and saw a plank of wood on the ground. He picked it up and repeatedly struck it in Maranga’s head.
Maranga fell in the ground.
Domingo, a barangay tanod and also a farmer, surrendered to the police after the incident. He is now detained at the Sibonga police station waiting for the filing of charges against him.
The police recovered the small bolo and the timber at the crime scene.
The victim’s body was brought to the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Carcar for autopsy./CORRESPONDENT RHEA RUTH V. ROSELL with gabriel bonjoc