Teen admits shabu use; girl shot in the forehead

The 16-year-old youth accused of killing his pregnant mother and 5-year-old half- sister  Thursday night admitted he was using  drugs at the time of the violence,  Naga City police said yesterday.

Chief Insp. Timmar Alam, Naga City police chief, said he ordered  drug and paraffin tests for the youth and another suspect Bryan Pansoy.

Alam said the 16-year-old boy confessed to police that he was using shabu at that time.

The violence took place in the victims’ home where the boy had gone to ask for money to buy  more liquor for a drinking session with his friends.

Meanwhile,  autopsy results showed that 5-year-old Geraldine Bantilan was shot in the forehead while her mother Virgindina was stabbed several times at their home in barangay Naalad, Naga City.

The Naga City police chief said he was surprised because the teenage boy  never mentioned before that he shot the girl in the head.

What they youth told him was that he bludgeoned  his mother’s head with a .357 revolver and hit his sister’s mouth to keep her silent before getting a  small knife and stabbing them.

The close-range gunshot would only worsen the legal problems  of the teenager.

While the minor’s age ensures that he will be placed in the custody of social workers instead of jail, he doesn’t escape criminal liability if it can be proven in court that he acted “with discernment”.

Alam said the girl’s gunshot wound would prove that the suspect intended to kill his stepsister.

He said the bullet was turned over by the funeral home to the police where it will undergo ballistics test.

Initial police investigation showed that Pansoy  provided the revolver and drove the teenage boy on his motorcycle to the highway leading to his mother’s house.

Jeramae Mabala, staffer of the St. Peter Memorial Chapel in Carcar City, said police medico legal officer Dr. Joe Martin Fuentes conducted an autopsy on the two bodies last Friday and extracted the bullet from the girl’s head.

Mabala said there was no bullet wound on the mother, but her remains showed several stab wounds.

Aside from the autopsy results, Alam said they recovered the suspect’s bloodstained shirt, shorts and towel from the nipa hut that he stayed in.

Parricide charges will be filed against the 16-year-old suspect before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office tomorrow.

Pansoy will be charged as an accomplice  while another 19-year-old companion, Mark Lester Abatas, will be used as a witness.

Alam said Abatas won’t be charged for paying the suspect P800 in exchange for the cell phone taken from the suspect’s mother.

“He has been cooperative with the investigation so we will use him as a witness,” Alam said.

The suspect’s 20-year-old girlfriend said she didn’t believe he could kill his mother and stepsister. She said they were together hours before the murders and that  her boyfriend texted her that they were in a fiesta disco.

She said the teenager used to be a member of the Trihydrone fraternity but the Talisay police chief said the suspect told them that he is a member of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity.

The boy is in the custody of social workers in Naga City while Pansoy is detained at the police precinct.

Two tanods and two policemen take turns watching them after they received food and clothing from an aunt and other relatives. The boy was given a pillow, a towel and a mat but no blanket to avoid any suicide attempt.

Staffers said the 16-year-old has been silent since he was turned over last Friday and would sleep most of the time.

Virgindina’s husband, a seaman working for a Manila-based shipping company, was informed about the murders last Friday night and is scheduled to arrive today or tomorrow.

With a story from Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya