SAD HOMECOMING | Residents of Lamitan City take turns in carrying the casket of former Mayor Rosita “Rose” Furigay. Her remains arrived at Kalugusan Beach in Barangay Kalugusan on Sunday morning a week after she was shot and killed at the Ateneo de Manila University campus in Quezon City. (Photo by JULIE ALIPALA / Inquirer Mindanao)
LAMITAN CITY, Basilan, Philippines — Amid the drizzle and a dark, downcast sky that only served to heighten the gloom, the body of former Lamitan City Mayor Rosita “Rose” Furigay arrived at the makeshift wharf of Kalugusan Beach here at 8:15 a.m. on Sunday, July 31.
Small black flags lined the highway leading to the beach, where people donning black shirts stayed by the roadside, carrying placards and tarpaulins, demanding justice for their former mayor.
As she readied herself to be part of the welcoming party along the roadside, Jing-Jing Asebron, a sectoral leader of Concerned Fuerza de Basilan, wept. “We used to see her as a jolly person, waving to us,” she said. “Now, we are waiting for her, but she [could] no longer smile nor wave, because she is already inside the casket.”
She considered Furigay the best mayor they ever had in Lamitan.
“She developed Lamitan and we started to enjoy peace and development here. This is the reason we are hurt and in pain,” she added.
“This person,” she said, referring to the killer who shot Furigay inside the Ateneo de Manila University (Admu) campus the previous Sunday during what was supposed to be the university’s College of Law graduation rites, “If, indeed, he was for justice, he should have elevated his claims to the higher office and not kill a person,” she added.
Police had arrested Furigay’s attacker, Chao Tiao Yumol, along Aurora Boulevard in Cubao, Quezon City, after a chase.
Yumol has been transferred to a Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facility while awaiting his arraignment in the multiple cases filed against him, said Quezon City Police District director Brig. Gen. Remus Medina on Sunday.
Yumol was charged with three counts of murder for killing the former mayor, her longtime executive aid Victor Capistrano and Admu security guard Jeneven Bandiala during a graduation ceremony on Ateneo grounds in Quezon City on July 24.
He was also charged with frustrated murder for shooting and wounding Furigay’s daughter, Hannah Rose; for car theft after he commandeered a vehicle to flee from the crime scene; as well as illegal possession of firearms and malicious mischief.
‘We are victims’
Thousands of residents positioned themselves along the road to welcome the coming home of the former mayor’s body, earlier placed at the Cosmopolitan chapel in Quezon City for vigil days before it was brought here.
More than 300 vehicles joined the convoy as the Furigay family brought her remains to their residence in Flores Street, Barangay Malinis, here.
In a chance interview, Mayor Roderick Furigay, the ex-mayor’s husband, reiterated his call for justice not only for his wife but also for the killer’s father, Rolando Yumol, who was killed on July 29, five days after the former mayor was killed.
“I want to call on the highest authorities to bring justice to our family and to the father of the confessed murderer,” the mayor said.
Furigay was referring to Rolando, father of Chao Tiao, who was gunned down in front of his home in Barangay Maligaya here.
“Sana hindi lang umpisa ng investigation, sana tapusin talaga [I hope that the investigation will not only be started but has to be finished and concluded],” he said.
He also appealed to social media vloggers and influencers to refrain from accusing their family of being behind the killing of the elder Yumol.
“We are victims here,” he said. “My wife was killed, the president of the LGBTQ group in Lamitan who happened to be one of my wife’s staff members was killed, my daughter was wounded and a security guard was also killed. We are victims here and we call on the authorities to initiate a deeper probe into this,” he added.
He also explained that they were not what some people think of as “bad people,” because every time they had complaints, they had always resorted to the courts instead of taking the law into their own hands.
“Every time we are attacked on social media by this Chao, we file a libel case. It has been going on for four years. If we [were] bad people, why [should we] go to court? We believe in due process. If we were bad people, this case would never have reached the court,” the mayor said.
Questions remain
Security was tight when the body of the slain Furigay was brought to her residence, where the family planned to hold a short vigil before she will be buried in their property in Barangay Limook here on Wednesday.
Lawyer Quirino Esguerra also appealed to authorities to look deeper into the operations of Yumol and to investigate people who might be involved behind the elder Yumol’s attack. “They should also be prosecuted,” Esguerra said.
The younger Yumol, a doctor and a self-proclaimed antidrug crusader, has confessed to shooting Furigay, whom he accused of being linked to the drug trade in his hometown in Lamitan.
For now, the Quezon City police considered the case “closed.” However, questions remain after police discovered that the .45-caliber pistol recovered from the doctor was named after a certain 1st Lt. Jeremy Aquino.
Aquino had declared the firearm lost during a service duty last November 2019 in Patikul, Sulu province.
—WITH A REPORT FROM KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING
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