UPLB security officer stabs wife to death then kills self

CAMP PACIANO RIZAL, Laguna — An official of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños police force killed his wife, who was also a former university employee, before taking his own life inside the family’s rented apartment in Los Baños, Laguna.

Chief Inspector Andres Simbajon Jr., Los Baños police chief, named the couple as Philip and Jo Ann Oruga.

Simbajon said Philip was an administrative officer of the University Police Force while Jo Ann had just resigned from her job at the university’s Office of the Public Relations. He described the couple as between 35 to 40 years old.

In a phone interview Thursday, Simbajon said the couple’s next-door neighbor in the two-floor Tesalona Apartments in Barangay (village) Bambang heard the couple fighting around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

Accordingto Simbajon, the neighbor, Ian Mon Ros, told the police that he also heard Philip scream “magtago ka na, magtago ka na” (You had better hide) before the wife reportedly ran out of their apartment.

When Ros stepped out, he saw Jo Ann lying outside near the stairs and Philip slumped near their door.

Ros went inside the couple’s apartment and found their 11-year-old daughter, while the other neighbors rushed the couple to the hospital.

Jo Ann was dead on arrival at the hospital and Philip died while undergoing treatment.

The police withheld the identity of the daughter, who told police that she saw her father stab her mother before killing himself.

Jo Ann suffered two stab wounds in the body while Philip died of stab wounds in his chest and heart. The police recovered the 11-inch kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon.

“The statement of the daughter, who witnessed everything, would suffice although we would still submit further reports. We think this was a ‘crime of passion,’” Simbajon said.

He believed the couple went through marital problems but he refused to disclose details to protect the daughter, based on the accounts of their relatives to the police. The daughter is now with her grandparents.

Jo Ann used to write articles and official announcements for the university posted on UPLB’s website, until she resigned just recently to take a job at the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research Development-Department of Science and Technology. Today, Thursday, was supposed to be her last day at the university.

Philip, on the other hand, was completing his doctorate degree although it was not confirmed if he took the course also in UPLB.

UPLB has not yet issued an official statement but Vice Chancellor Dr. Enrique Tolentino Jr., in a text message, said it was a sad news for them.