A man made good on his threat not to give his wife any peace after he killed their three children by stabbing them repeatedly inside their house in Sampaloc, Manila, on Tuesday.
Rolando Reformado, a 36-year-old jeepney driver, then tried but failed to kill himself by stabbing himself in the chest. He was taken to the Philippine General Hospital where he remains under observation.
The police, however, said he would undergo inquest proceedings on Wednesday for three counts of parricide. According to probers, Reformado’s wife, Angelie, had left him and was staying with her family in Camarin, Caloocan City, as she was tired of being beaten up whenever he became jealous or got drunk.
According to the report submitted by SPO2 Charles John Duran of the Manila Police District (MPD), the lifeless bodies of the couple’s 5-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son were discovered by a relative around 12:20 a.m. on Tuesday in their house at Dapitan corner San Diego Streets. Their other son aged 9 was still alive and taken to Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center but he died at 1:38 a.m.
SPO3 Milbert Balinggan said the children had been stabbed repeatedly in different parts of their bodies. Inside their house, the police found a message on the wall written by their father using his blood: “Sorry for everything, Ma. I love you very much. I hope you can forgive me.”
The police said that last Friday, Angelie, upon her husband’s request, left their daughter in their house in Manila. She had taken the girl with her when she left him but Reformado had asked to see their daughter, saying he missed her.
Insp. Dennis Paul Javier, MPD homicide section chief, said the suspect had been motivated by jealousy as shown by his text messages to Angelie and her cousin Marjorie Rey.
A text message he sent to Rey sent the latter rushing to the couple’s house in Sampaloc on Tuesday. It read: “Tell her (Angelie) that I will not give her any peace and she will remember me even in her dreams. We are leaving. I hope she can give us a nice funeral. It is almost midnight. Like I said, it’s too late. Goodbye. Thank you.”
Angelie also told the police that the suspect warned her about killing their children last Sunday. Recovered from the crime scene was an 11-inch-long kitchen knife and the suspect’s cell phone which was stained with his blood.