Pa: Fight for justice continues

It’s been almost three years since his 6-year-old daughter was kidnapped and killed.

But Renante Pique said the pain has not gone away.

“There were times when I’d suddenly remember losing my daughter. Sometimes, I had to stop driving my motorcycle because my heart aches and I get chest pains,” he said in Cebuano.

Renante, along with his wife Ligaya, their 12-year-old son, and his mother-in-law, visited the tomb of Ellah Joy at the Pardo Cemetery yesterday for All Souls’ Day.

They offered flowers and lit candles.

PAIN

“I don’t think the pain of losing my daughter will ever go away,” Renante said.

He, nonetheless, continues to call and fight for justice for her death.

Renante said he won’t mind having a protracted court battle as long as justice is served in due time.

“I know I cannot get my daughter back. All I want is for her to be given justice. I entrust everything to the Lord,” Pique said.

Ellah Joy was walking home from school when she accepted a ride in an SUV outside the Calajo-an Elementary School in Minglanilla town on Feb. 8, 2011.

Her body was found wrapped in a blanket below a ravine in Barili town, south Cebu the following day.

Suspects

Former bar girl Bella Ruby Santos and her British boyfriend Ian Charles Griffiths were tagged by witnesses as the persons who abducted and threw the body of Ellah Joy.

Santos and Griffiths are facing charges of kidnapping with homicide in court in relation to the girl’s death.

Santos, who denies the charges, was arrested in Metro Manila by authorities and spent several months in a Naga city jail. Her British partner, who left the country soon after Ellah Joy’s disappearance, is believed to be back in the United Kingdom.

The court later ordered Santos’ release on bail.

The next hearing is set on Nov. 11. /Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol