Retired Dagupan judge fatally stabbed; helpers charged

DAGUPAN CITY—House helpers have been charged for stabbing to death an 80-year-old retired judge in her house in Trinidad Subdivision here on Saturday night, police said on Monday.

Superintendent Romeo Caramat, city police chief, said the body of former regional trial court Judge Corazon Abalos-Merrera, 80, a widow, was found by her helpers on the second floor of her house in Barangay (village) Arellano Bani here.

Merrera had five stab wounds in the chest. No family member was living with Merrera but helpers, most of them men, had been assisting her in household chores and other errands.

Police found a 12-inch fan knife in the crime scene. Investigators later recovered bloodstained clothes in the helpers’ quarters.

Caramat said the police based the charges on a sworn affidavit of helper Genny Romano, 22, who said he overheard his colleagues saying they needed the services of Jacob Mendiola, a security guard who used to work in Merrera’s house, to rob their employer.
Charged were drivers Christian Benedict Lagatao, 20, and John-john Basa, 22; helpers Jeriel Cadelenia, 21, Felipe Quillope, 47, and Michael de Guzman; and Mendiola.

Other helpers told Merrera’s son Roberto that the former judge saw a stranger in the house on Friday night and instructed them to inspect the house and its surroundings.

The helpers, however, saw no one, prompting Merrera to go to her bedroom at midnight, police said.

It was the following night, on Saturday, when the helpers informed Merrera’s family that they found her dead.

Caramat said the police have yet to establish if there was robbery involved in the crime.