LAST GOODBYE Luzviminda Siapo, mother of Raymart, bids her son farewell at the funeral mass celebrated by Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David at the Church of Sta. Clara in Malabon on Sunday. —RAFFY LERMA
An unexpected visitor turned up at Sunday’s funeral mass for Raymart Siapo, the teenager from Barangay NBBS, Navotas City, who was killed by bonnet-wearing men a day after a neighbor accused him of being a drug pusher.
Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said that he was eating breakfast when he read about Siapo’s murder in the Inquirer. (Link: Drug war sends OFW rushing home for son who ‘couldn’t run’)
“My heart was crushed when I read the news. I could not swallow the bread I was eating so I decided to come here to tell you that we are here for you,” David told the victim’s family which included his crying mother, Luzviminda.
“If the people who killed Raymart are listening, maybe you are just nearby. Murderers are like that. They like to watch. Whoever you are, God is not asleep. Even if you covered your faces, God knows who you are,” the bishop said.
Bonnet-clad gunmen abducted and killed Siapo on March 29, a day after a neighbor he had an argument went to barangay officials and accused him of many things, including selling marijuana. The allegations made by the neighbor, identified only as Pejie, were recorded in the barangay logbook.
Unfounded accusation
The accusation, according to Luzviminda, who rushed home from Kuwait upon learning of her son’s death, was unfounded. This was confirmed by barangay and police officials who said the teenager was not on any drug watchlist.
Siapo, who was born with clubfeet, was taken by around 14 armed men on motorbikes who shot him twice in the head. They asked him to run but he could not because of his condition so they asked him to sit down. An autopsy showed that both of his arms had also been broken.
Upon reading the story, David, whose diocese oversees south Caloocan, Navotas and Malabon, immediately started making phone calls to find out where Siapo would be buried.
He eventually learned that the boy’s family lived in Navotas and that a mass would be held at the Church of Sta. Clara in Malabon on Sunday.
David surprised everyone when he offered to celebrate the last mass for Siapo. At the same time, he called on the Duterte administration and the police to probe all death under investigation (DUI)
cases.
“These DUI cases, I want to know if you are really investigating these,” he said during the mass.
David likened the killers to Cain who killed his brother Abel. “God will deal with you and you will never have peace. Your conscience will bother you,” he said.
Inconsolable mother
Luzviminda, who was kneeling on the floor while listening to David’s homily, was inconsolable.
She came home on April 2 after finally convincing her employer that her only child had been killed. Before agreeing, however, she had to kiss her employer’s feet three times and leave all her belongings as proof that she would return.
At the Our Lady Lourdes Eternal Park Cemetery, where she bid her first child and only son goodbye, Luzviminda wanted to know whether ordinary people were entitled to justice.
In the midst of her grief and fear, Luz said she had a message for President Duterte: “Please solve these murders.”