SAN PEDRO CITY—The self-confessed killer of a mother and her child in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna province said he and another suspect had videotaped the crime using a mobile phone provided by the alleged mastermind, the victim’s husband.
In a telephone interview earlier this week, Supt. Reynaldo Maclang, Sta. Rosa City police chief, said Ramoncito Galo (not Gallo as earlier identified by the police), one of the two suspects identified through a footage from a security camera, sought protection for his family.
Claiming he was bothered by his conscience, Galo, a tricycle driver from Barangay Cupang in Muntinlupa City, surrendered to the police on March 18. He said Ricardo “Richard” Sta. Ana contracted them to kill his wife, Pearl Helene, 29, and 1-year-old son, Denzel, on March 2.
Denzel died in a hospital hours after the attack, while Pearl passed away on March 5.
Senior Supt. Ronnie Montejo, Laguna provincial police director, said the parricide charges against Sta. Ana were filed at the Sta. Rosa City prosecutor’s office. Separate charges of homicide were filed against Galo and another suspect.
Quoting Galo’s affidavit, Maclang said Galo and his companion, identified only as Bryan, had known Sta. Ana as “Sir Jeff.”
“There was a [middleman] who referred [Sta. Ana to Galo]. They were told that their target was a relative of his (Sta. Ana’s) sibling’s boyfriend,” Maclang said.
Montejo said Sta. Ana allegedly wanted to exact revenge. “The word he used was ‘resbak,’” he said.
Sta. Ana met Galo and Bryan at a fast food restaurant in Sta. Rosa City on Feb. 29 where he gave them an initial payment of P10,000 and a map of the victims’ house in a subdivision in Barangay Labas.
On March 2, Maclang said Sta. Ana met Galo twice—first early in the morning and the second time, with Bryan, around 11 a.m. in a shopping mall in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.
Sta. Ana allegedly gave Galo and Bryan a fake company identification card from a telecommunication company and a form they would later use so Pearl would allow them in. Police later recovered the ID card that led them to identify a supposed employee of a telecommunication firm, one David de la Cruz, as a suspect.
“All those came from [Sta. Ana],” Maclang said.
He said Sta. Ana had traveled with Galo and Bryan from Muntinlupa City to Sta. Rosa City on the day of the murder.
In a restaurant at the city center, Sta. Ana gave Galo and Bryan a white Samsung mobile phone, which was used to videotape the killing as evidence that the job was completed, Maclang said.
Galo, in his statement, admitted to tying up and gagging Pearl in the bathroom. He also said he hit her with a hammer in the nape.
Galo said he realized that “Jeff” was the woman’s husband when he saw the couple’s wedding photo in the living room, Maclang said.
Sta. Ana, at that time, was waiting at a jeepney terminal in Sta. Rosa City. After meeting Galo and Bryan, they traveled back to Muntinlupa City where Sta. Ana took the mobile phone and gave the suspects the rest of the P50,000 payment.
Maclang said the police had asked Sta. Ana to turn over the mobile phone but he refused.
“He’s being uncooperative [but] it’s his right,” he said.
In a telephone interview on Monday, lawyer Persida Acosta, chief of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), whose office is representing Sta. Ana, said their client was not hiding.
“He is innocent per evidence,” Acosta said. “Why would a father have his child, who looked very much like him, killed?”
“If those were really hired killers, why leave [their targets] alive?” she added.