Father offers food, prayers for Ellah

It was a steep climb down  the ravine for Renante Pique past 6 a.m. in   barangay Sayaw, Barili town, southwest Cebu.

At the bottom, he lay down cooked rice, adobong baboy (pork stew), ensaymada, bananas and lollipops, the favorite food of his slain 6-year-old daughter Ellah Joy.

He lighted candles and offered flowers.

“I hope the culprits will be confronted by their conscience. May the Lord forgive them for what they did to my daughter,” Renante said in Cebuano as families gathered in cemeteries across the country to visit their departed loved ones for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

He was alone in the trek aside from a few news reporters.

Pique cried as he recounted memories of his youngest daughter, whose kidnapping and death  remains one of the most closely followed crime cases in Cebu.

On this site,   more than 40 kilometers  from their home in Calajoan, Minglanilla town,  the little girl’s body was found wrapped in a blanket last Feb. 8.

Renante and the rest of the family later went to Ellah Joy’s grave at the Pardo Cemetery in Cebu City.

He said it feels strange to pay respects to his own child whom he outlived. “Everything is still fresh,” Renante said.

He said Ellah Joy appeared to his wife in a dream a day before homicide suspect Bella Ruby Santos was arrested in a shopping mall in Metro Manila on Oct. 7.

“She was wearing a white dress. We were all together and she seemed happy,” he said.

At the mention of Bella Santos’s name, Renante turned emotional.

He said someone  approached him three times asking  permission to kill her.

“I didn’t agree. If Bella would  die, she won’t suffer much. I rather see her jailed. I can forgive. Even the Lord pardons our faults. Whatever happens, Ellah Joy cannot be brought back to life,” he said.

Renante didn’t reveal the name  of the person who  spoke of wanting to kill Santos or give details of why or how.

Renante is a  member of the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy but said he has not been active in the party-list group.

Lawyer Inocencio dela Cerna, lead counsel of the Task Force Ellah Joy Pique and   the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7), believed Renante did the right thing by not placing the law on his hands.

“That is the right thing to do. Let justice take its course. Let the wheels of justice of grind. Any extralegal action  is not good,” Dela Cerna told Cebu Daily News.

Lawyer Joan Saniel-Amit, executive director of the Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB), said he was shocked with Renante’s revelations.

“We have a legal system. Why do we have to resort to extralegal means? I guess Renante was telling the truth (in revealing plots to kill Santos),” Amit said.

But defense lawyer Julius Caesar Entice described Renante’s revelation a “publicity stunt.”

“Frankly speaking, their (prosecution) case is weak. Whether or not Renante’s revelation is true, it’s really immaterial and has no bearing in the case,” Entice said.

Entice, however, said Santos’ life is “always a risk.”

“But we are more concerned about getting this case dispensed with,” he said.

Santos and her British partner Ian Charles Griffiths are facing charges of kidnapping with homicide in relation to Ellah Joy’s death last Feb. 8.

NBI-7 special investigator Arnel Pura said they have to secure Santos after they received informations regarding a “group” or “symphatizers” who wish to shot or stab Santos. Santos is presently detained at the Naga City Jail. /Ador Vincent Mayol, Reporter with Correspondent Katreena Bisnar