‘My grandson was wrapped like bread’

INSTEAD of his remains, the siblings of 7-year-old Gabriel Morales saw only the white plastic sheet wrapped around around him in a coffin.

The boy’s remains were buried in the St. Joseph’s Cemetery following a  3 p.m. Mass.

Gabriel was killed by his mother’s live-in partner, whose violence was triggered by a fit of jealousy and anger after the woman decided to end their relationship last month.

Gabriel’s elder siblings Vincent, 11, and Monica, 9, cried when they saw him wrapped inside a  coffin, which was opened for the first time during the Mass.

Thomasa Morales Rondina, the 60-year-old sister of Gabriel’s late grandmother Concordia, said she stood as grandmother to Gabriel and his siblings.

“He was a good child … now we can only see him wrapped like bread,” she said weeping.

Vincent said he would  sorely miss his youngest brother.

He said he  hoped that the perpetrator would stay in jail for life.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale deplored the child’s murder, saying it was a “disgusting”   crime that could only be done by someone with a “sick mind”.

Magpale, who co-chairs the Provincial Council for the Welfare of Children (PCWC), said the Capitol would extend assistance to  the Morales family if it is requested. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus