Widower in Paniqui killings asks netizens: Spare killer cop’s daughter from insults
PANIQUI, TARLAC — The father of the man who was shot dead by an off-duty policeman here on Sunday is appealing to the public to stop insulting the policeman’s 12-year-old daughter on social media.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) on Monday also appealed to people to spare the girl their anger and stop condemning her on social media.
Florentino Gregorio, father of 25-year-old Frank Anthony Gregorio, who was shot dead along with his mother, 52-year-old Sonya Gregorio, by Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca here on Sunday, said the girl’s parents were to blame for how she reacted to the altercation between mother and son and the policeman.
Don’t bash her
“If she were raised properly, she won’t act that way. At that moment, she should have dreaded the gunfire and run away crying,” Gregorio told reporters.
“But let’s not bash her. She’s just a kid. The child lacks the right parental care . . . I know it was also painful for them,” he said.
Article continues after this advertisementVideos of the incident showed the girl standing near her father during the heated exchanges with the Gregorios.
Article continues after this advertisementAt one point during the confrontation, the girl shouted at Sonya Gregorio, “My father is a policeman.”
“I don’t care,” Gregorio shouted back, enraging Nuezca, who drew his 9mm M-92 service pistol and shot her point-blank in the head then Frank Anthony Gregorio twice. Before leaving with his daughter, Nuezca fired once more on Sonya Gregorio as she lay on the ground.
The authorities have brought double-murder (or two counts of murder) charges against Nuezca in a court in Paniqui. The prosecutor has recommended no bail for Nuezca’s temporary liberty.
Comments on social media about the killings were unfriendly to the policeman’s daughter.
Taking note of the public’s reaction, the DSWD said people should spare the child their ire.
Psychosocial support
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Irene Dumlao, spokesperson for the DSWD, said the girl was at an early stage of her life where she had yet to learn how to control her emotional impulses.
Dumlao said the DSWD had conducted an assessment in Paniqui and provided psychosocial support to the minor and the residents in the neighborhood where the killings happened.
“The psychosocial support is [focused not only] on the individual, but [also on] the entire community. It is important that they recover and [be rehabilitated] from this incident,” she said.
Maria Lourdes Carandang, a clinical psychologist, on Tuesday said the policeman’s daughter should not be bullied in cyberspace, as the child was not the one who pulled the trigger.
“Let us not blame the wrong person. It is unjust. We should blame the person who committed the crime, not the child,” Carandang said in an interview.
Witnessing the killings was traumatizing for the child, but seeing that her father was behind the gun made the killings doubly traumatizing for her, Carandang said.
She said it was unjust for the policeman to kill the Gregorios and irresponsible as a parent to commit the crime before his child.
“You are always the role model to your child,” Carandang said.
She said it was necessary for the girl to undergo therapy and good intervention to process the trauma and learn good behavior.
