NOBODY had the heart to tell Embrelaince Therjoy Ponce that her parents and siblings were already dead.
She learned about it on the Internet almost eight hours after the shootings.
Yolanda Daan, the neighbor who comforted her immediately after the 13-year-old girl ran out of the house as gunshots were fired past 8 a.m., said the girl was not told immediately to keep her calm.
They just told her doctors were working to treat the gunshot victims at the hospital.
At the house of Thelma Billones, her father’s cousin, where she was sheltered on Sunday, she was able to sleep at noon. At 4 p.m. , she woke up and turned on the computer.
“She was shouting when she read on the Internet that her parents and siblings were all dead,” Daan recalled.
Several theories are being looked into as the cause of the domestic violence.
SP01 Mikie Espina, Talisay investigator, said police are looking into a possible nervous breakdown by the father, Emmanuel, who shot his family members and their housekeeper. The shots were mostly aimed at the head.
But after police interviewed the aunt, they also are considering financial pressures and marital disputes.
Barangay councilor Joy Sabejon said the married couple were family friends, who were sweet and loving, until Emmanuel was forced to retire early as an overseas seaman after an accident 10 years ago where he injured his head.
“Melinda would confide in us because she was close to my mother. She admitted that Emmanuel would physically harm her but she was happy that her children would rally behind her when this happens,” Sabejon said.
At the vigil wake, relatives poured in.
Siblings remember Melinda, the slain wife, as a jolly, helpful sister.
“Super helpful siya sa amin. She was a working student from high school till college. She helped us rise from the ‘rags.’ Jologs na siya nga type of person. Close kami lahat sa family nya. Nagtutulungan kami” (She was helpful to us and a jolly person. We were all close to her family. We would help each other),” said Melinda’s younger sister Yayo Dio, 36, who arrived from Manila with two other sisters.
They were 10 in the family and hail from Sorsogon, Bicol region.
“Our parents already passed away. We just had our family reunion in Sorsogon last July,” said Dio.
An aunt Rosellei Redula said 13-year-old Ember would often be invited to stay with them for special occasions.
“For now, we will be her legal guardian. Whatever problem Melinda had, she’d tell them. We know she had a conflict with her husband but we’ve keep that to ourselves,” said Redula.
Ember’s uncle, Paul Redula, 26, from Tabunok said the father was a good man.
“Di na siya kabuak ug baso. Kato lang pagkadisgrasya niya. Major damage jud to,” he said. (He couldn’t even break a glass. But after that accident he had, he suffered major damage.)
House helper
Anastacia Deniega, the 34-year-old household helper, who was also killed will be brought to her hometown in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, today.
She had worked for five years in the Ponce household.
Her husband, Ronald, a softdrinks and Gasul delivery man, was inconsolable.
He said he sensed trouble in the household and had told his wife to leave since he could support them on his salary.
The couple had been living together for five years but just got married in Talisay during a mass wedding in June. /Jhunnex Napallacan and Rhea Ruth V. Rosell, Correspondents