‘Balikbayan’ couple’s reunion ends in gunshots

A couple who recently returned from separate countries were found dead at their house in Roxas District, Quezon City, before dawn Friday, each with a gunshot wound in the head.

The bodies of Erika Mauricio and Al Bryan Padua, both migrant workers, were found inside their residence on Azucena Street by a tenant, who recalled hearing two shots around 3 a.m.

A Colt .45-cal. pistol lay near the bodies. The police later gathered from relatives that the couple had been having quarrels for the past few days.

“It may be a case of homicide and suicide,” said Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo, chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.

The couple left behind a five-year-old son, who was crying in the corner, asking for milk, when his dead parents were found by the tenant, Ginalin Famatiga.

Mauricio, 28, sustained a gunshot wound in the temple while Padua had what appeared to be an exit wound in the back of the head. “It’s possible that the gun was placed in his mouth,” said Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo, head of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.

The case investigator, PO2 Alvin Quisumbing, also learned from the relatives that Mauricio returned from Dubai on May 15 with the young boy, while Padua flew back from Japan on May 17.

Padua was welcomed at the airport by his wife and son, but the couple had not been in good terms since his return, the investigator said.

Quisumbing said Mauricio was found slumped on the bed while Padua died in a sitting position on the floor. Paraffin tests would still be conducted on the bodies to confirm who fired the gun, he said.