INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur — Local police here have launched a manhunt for a retired policeman from Basilan who hacked his wife on Friday morning.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Lorenzo, city police director, identified the suspect as Zaldy Jama Tikbuan, 50, who had retired from the police service and relocated his family in Barangay Baliwasan.
Lorenzo said Tikbuan had a heated argument with his wife, Nasra Jamih, 36, before hacking her neck at around 6:30 a.m. in front of their 6-year-old daughter who was preparing for school at that time.
Tikbuan then fled, leaving his daughter behind.
Baliwasan village chief Sheryl Cabato Uro said it was her first time to encounter such a gruesome crime. She narrated that the Tikbuan family recently relocated from Basilan a few months ago after the policeman reportedly retired from the service.
“They were actually good residents, the family was known in the community to be good-natured (that is why) the crime he committed shocked us,” said Uro, who immediately took custody of the child and turned her over to the City Social Welfare and Development Office.
“We are now trying to locate two of her siblings,” Uro added.
Lorenzo said the incident could be the most gruesome and serious case of violence against women and children in this city, which is traced to the suspect’s fit of jealousy.