‘Mom, please help me forget’

The sight of her parents’ tombs at the Tala Public Cemetery on All Saints’ Day left Linda speechless. For a moment, it brought back painful memories of how the couple, both confessed drug pushers, were murdered in front of her and her other siblings.

“I want to forget. I pray to my mother to help me forget. I always tell her: ‘Mama, please help me forget’,” the 11-year-old girl, the eldest in a brood of six, told the Inquirer in a recent interview.

On Aug. 25, armed men wearing ski masks burst into their house in Caloocan City. She and her mother, Lilia, woke up to find guns pointed at them. Lilia started pleading for their lives while waving a document proving that she and her husband, Albert, had surrendered under Oplan Tokhang.

Albert was fast asleep with Levy, his 4-year-old son, lying on his chest. Awakened by his wife’s pleas, he sat up but a bullet split his head open. Next was his wife who was also shot in the head. The armed men then left.

Before they were killed, the couple had been planning to return to the province where they planned to start life afresh.

Still in mourning

“I’m still having a hard time sleeping at night. I always dream about my parents and my older sister who died from rabies. In my dreams, we are happy. It’s always like that,” Linda said. “Those dreams make me miss them so much.”

All Saints’ Day turned into a reunion of sorts for her and her five other siblings who have been living separately since the killings.

Linda has been staying with her grandmother, Fely, in another city, because suspicious-looking men on motorcycles were still roaming around their old neighborhood in Tala, Caloocan City.

Lester, her 8-year-old brother and younger sister Lulu, 5, are also in Fely’s care.

When Linda returned to Tala on Nov. 1, she ran straight into the alley leading to her aunt Mary’s house. This was where her younger brothers Levy, 4 and Lance, 2 had been staying for the past months.

She embraced the boys and placed them on her lap. She sang songs to them and kissed them repeatedly. Her 10-year-old sister Laura, who had been adopted by another relative, also came and played with them.

With the arrival of Lester and Lulu, the siblings were complete. They were clearly happy to be together as they sang, danced, rolled around the floor and embraced each other. Talk turned to who attended the most fun Halloween party.

“You should have been here. We really had fun,” Lester told Lulu. “But I had fun, too. Don’t you know, I won in a dance contest. I was the star,” she replied.

The reunion, however, was briefly halted because Fely and her three daughters wanted to leave for the cemetery. They wanted to bring all the younger children with them but Mary prevailed on them to leave Levy and Lance behind.

On their way to visit their parents, Linda took this reporter’s hand, telling her, “Please be careful, it’s really muddy here. You might slip so hold my hand.” She did not let go until it was time to leave.

In front of Albert and Lilia’s tombs, Fely and her daughters recited a novena as the couple’s four children looked on. They later urged the kids: “You can’t see them but they can see you. Talk to mama and papa. Pray for them.”

Linda then bowed her head and started to cry quietly. Before long, she was wailing, “Mama, mama, mama.”

According to Mary, they had no choice but raise the couple’s six children separately “since we are not rich.” Besides, all of them have their own children to look after, she told the Inquirer.

Money problems

“Just thinking of where to get money to feed the kids makes my head spin. We’re not wealthy and we don’t have stable jobs. Every day, we try to just get by,” Mary said.

On their way to their grandfather’s tomb which was just nearby, the children started singing a song about the rain, love and loss.

As they were belting out the lyrics, Linda was smiling, happy and contented in the company of her siblings.