When Bella Ruby Santos appears in court today, she has only two words to say: “Not guilty”.
Her arraignment before Judge Ester Veloso of the Cebu Regional Trial Court (RTC) will be closely covered by the media, which has followed her journey as a suspect in the Feb. 8 kidnap and killing of 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique up till Santos’ arrest last Oct. 7.
A separate story can be told from the elaborate tattoos on Santos’ legs – names of two sons living abroad, a rosary, a wild flower and the word “survivor”.
The images give glimpses of Santos’ private life and her current struggle with the stigma of being charged with a heinous crime.
“I didn’t feel any pain when the tattoos were placed. If you have problems, I think you feel numb,” Santos told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano.
“These (tattoos) are for life.”
She said she had her legs tattoed last July and paid P18,000 in Grand Central Mall in Caloocan City.
At the time, she was evading an arrest warrant and staying with friends in Metro Manila.
She said the tattoos were “part of my moving on and to escape depressesion.”
Santos, 36, who openly declares her relationship with British boyfriend Ian Charles Griffiths, who is co-accused in the case, said the tattoos signify the agony of being implicated in Ellah Joy Pique’s death.
Santos pointed to an angel tattooed on her nape. She said this reminds her of a baby she once carried in her womb.
On her right leg is a wild flower which she said reminds her of being “pushed to the ground.”
The names of her two sons are tattooed in Chinese letters on her right leg. Her sons are living with her Filipino husband in the United States.
On her right leg are the statements “Wildflower in troubled water rescued by the knight of darkness” , “Life’s secret betrayed by heaven, broken spirit healed by never ending lies,” and “Naive heart fooled by…IDIOT.”
On her left leg, a rosary tattoo with the words “faith, perverted law, and horror truth” can be read on the beads. The rosary cross has the word “survive.”
When asked what she meant by the statements on her legs, Santos, pointing to her jail, said, “This is what I got.”
“I betrayed my husband who cared for me. There is no one to be blamed except me,” she said.
Bella said she was supposed to reconcile with her Filipino husband, but he learned about her relationship with Griffiths.
“Dili lalim ang akong situation karon. Agwantahon gyud nako kay wala man ko choice ( I’m in a difficult situation. I have no choice but to endure it.)” she said.
Santos said she was ready for the court trial ahead and would fight to prove her innocence.
Schoolgirl Ellah Joy Pique was last seen accepting a ride home from a Filipina woman and a foreign male in a dark “Pajero” outside the Calaojan Elementary School in Minglanilia town. The girl’s body was found the next day, wrapped in a blanket and thrown down a ravine several kilometers away in Barili town, southwest Cebu.
“Dili man gyud kami. andam ko sa trial basta nagsulti ko sa tinuod. (We are not the culprits. I’m ready for the trial and will tell the truth),” Santos said.
“Mga ignorante ra ang motuo nila. Naglikay na unta ko sa init nga istorya pero di man sila mohunong. (Only those who are ignorant will believe what the police say. I wanted to avoid head words with them but they won’t stop attacking me),’ she said.
She said she entrusts to the Lord what will happen to her, adding, “I am prepared for the worst.”
Santos was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) inside a mall in Metro Manila last Oct. 7
Her lawyers filed a motion for bail last Friday. Since she is charged with a heinous crime, the prospects for bail depend on whether the evidence of the prosecution is strong.
Santos said she had a meassage for Ellah Joy’s father Renante.
“I hope justice will be served. I pity him (Renante Pique, Ellah Joy’s father). It’s not easy to lose someone. But if I will be the one who shall answer for the girl’s death, there would still be no justice,” she said. /Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter