Child stabs pa to protect mother

“PRISOHON ko ani Ma? (Will I go to jail for this Ma?)”

An 11-year-old girl asked her mother this after she fatally stabbed her father inside their home in barangay Canbanua, Argao town, southern Cebu at past 11 a.m last Sunday.

The girl had watched her parents fight, and couldn’t stand by when her father clubbed her mother on the head with a piece of wood and looked ready to finish her off.

The 38-year-old man identified by police as Victoriano Alvarado  managed to run away but was found dead in a grassy area  about 100 meters away from the family home.

Insp. Alejandro Batobalonos, chief of the Argao police said Alvarado and his live-in partner Lucy Umpad had a heated argument over his allegd affair with another woman.

Alvarado was about to punch the woman, who who got a  bolo and hacksaw, ready to defend herself.

Then Alvarado got a piece of wood and hit her on the forehead.

“That’s the time that their daughter got the knife in the cabinet and stabbed him,”  said the police officer.

The 12-inch kitchen knife was intentionally hidden by the girl upon her mother’s instructions so Alvarado couldn’t use it against her.

Neighbors brought the wounded man to the Isidro Kintanar Memorial Hospital where he was declared dead by the attending doctor.

The girl’s mother sustained cuts on her left leg and fingers. She was treated in the same hospital.

The 11-year-old girl and two other sisters were  temporarily turned over to the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development but have a grandaunt as a guardian.

The 11-year-old  told social workers she couldn’t allow her mother to be killed.  With her minor age, the child will not be turned over to the police or end up in jail under the  Juvenile Justice Law.

Her action in defense of her mother, whose life was under threat would also weight heavily in any charges that may be filed.

She asked her mother “Ma, napatay nako si Papa? Prisohon ko ani Ma?” (Ma, did I kill Papa? Will I go to jail for this?)

“Wala pa ta kahibaw kay naa pa man sa hospital imong Papa (We don’t know yet because your father is still in the hospital),” the mother replied.

Police said the  couple lived together for 15 years. Their eldest daughter is 13 years old while their youngest daughter is two months old.

The 11-year-old was described by her teachers as a “silent type.”

Her sisters were awakened after hearing their parents fight.

Alvarado reportedly shouted to her eldest daughter for help but she was unable to do anything because she was in a state of shock, Batobalonos said.

A neighbor,  Miguel Tapales, said he and other  residents  heard the couple quarreling at past 11 p.m. but they just ignored them, believing that it was just one of their usual  domestic quarrels.

But after several minutes, the  11-year–old daughter went to them and asked for help because she feared her father would return and kill all of them.

Batobalonos said they Police said a background check showed  that Alvarado was fired from his job by Argao Mayor Edsel Galeos as driver for his EG&I Construction business more than a week ago over an illicent affair with a fellow driver’s wife.

Batobalonos also confirmed that an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) fired Alvarado from his driver’s job for having an affair with a married employee.

In her notebook, the 11-year-old daughter wrote a letter to her family expressing regret over the violence. But the letter was unfinished.  The mother said her daughter told her that she thought Alvarado had killed her. /Rhea Ruth V. Rosell and Jhunnex Napallacan with Correspondents Carine M. Asutilla and Jessa Agua