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SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna — A woman was arrested in Nasugbu town in Batangas after she allegedly killed her child by covering the infant’s face to stop him from crying, police said Thursday.
Chief Inspector Rogelio Pineda Jr., the Nasugbu police chief, said suspect Agnes Villasquez, 26, was left alone with her four-year-old daughter and the nine-month-old child when the killing happened in their home in Barangay Calayo around 4 p.m. Wednesday.
“The four-year-old witnessed it. She said her mother covered the baby’s face and squeezed his nose to stop him from crying,” Pineda said in a phone interview.
The suspect’s husband, a construction worker, was at work while their six-year-old child was at school at the time. The family told the police it was not the first time that Villasquez hurt her children.
Pineda said a similar incident happened about three years ago when Villasquez also covered her daughter’s face to stop her from crying.
“It so happened that the husband arrived just in time to save the daughter from suffocating,” Pineda said. The family believed Villasquez was suffering from some mental condition.
“When I was talking to her (Villasquez), she seemed aware of what she had done. Parricide charges will still be filed against her since we are not in authority to determine if she was mentally ill,” Pineda said. SFM/rga