Maria Ramona “Mara” Bautista. PHOTO FROM HTTP://ALIWANAVENUE.WORDPRESS.COM
Ramona Bautista’s Turkish husband ordered her to return to Istanbul the day after her brother Ramgen Jose was killed in BF Homes subdivision in Parañaque City.
A source privy to the family’s affairs called the Philippine Daily Inquirer to reveal this detail following reports that Ramona, 22, had left for Turkey in an apparent attempt to evade investigators who tied her to Ramgen’s murder.
Ramona married her Turkish husband at 19, causing great distress to her father, former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr.
The source, who asked not to be named, said Ramona had been in Manila for only three months when Ramgen, 23, was killed on October 28.
For a time, her extended stay even caused suspicion among some family members that she might be having marital problems.
Before her arrival in mid-2011, Ramona was with her husband in Turkey, the source said.
This explains why she is not among the many of the photos of Revilla Sr.’s eight other children with Genelyn Magsaysay that are posted on social networking sites.
‘Face the issue’
Ramona’s half-brother, Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., said she could only convince the family of her innocence in the murder of elder brother Ramgen if she returned to the country.
“If she is not guilty, she should return and face the issue,” Revilla Jr. said in an ambush interview inside the elevator of a hotel in Alabang, Muntinlupa, on Saturday night.
When Ramona left for Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific plane, she reportedly wrote “Istanbul” as her final destination in her departure card. She also indicated she was a “resident” of that country.
“That’s why I’m angry with her. Why did she have to lie,” the senator added, apparently referring to how Ramona changed the statements she gave to the police.
Kidnap story
Initially, Ramona said she was abducted and forced into a van by armed men who killed Ramgen. She claimed she was left in the vicinity of a mall in Las Piñas after the van drove around southern Metro Manila.
The day before she flew to Hong Kong, Ramona told ANC News that she left Ramgen and his girlfriend Janelle Manahan after the attack for fear that the perpetrators would go after her.
However, police investigators still find it hard to explain why she did not seek help from law enforcers stationed in a precinct in the BF Homes commercial area just six blocks from her house in Phase 6-A.
Aside from Ramona, at least one witness and two suspects pointed to her brother Ramon Joseph, 18, as the mastermind of the plot to kill Ramgen. The siblings were reportedly fighting over the monthly allowance provided by their father, former Senator Ramon Revilla Sr.
Revilla Jr. was with Ramona when she told Las Piñas police investigators about her concocted abduction.
“I thought of calming her. She was crying. I asked her, ‘Did they hurt you? What did they do to you?’ She said no one hurt her. But why did she have to lie?” the senator said.
Appeal to mother
The senator has already appealed to Ramona’s mother, Magsaysay, to convince her daughter to come home and face investigators.
In an earlier news conference with movie reporters in the hotel, the senator noted that Ramona’s hasty exit had made it worse for the family, especially for their father who was hospitalized for high fever and hypertension after Ramgen’s death.
“Her sudden departure has given the family so much suffering. And I’m bearing the burden of the whole family. I told my father, ‘Daddy, as if I’m carrying the whole world on my back.’ He told me, ‘You can handle it my son,’” Revilla Jr. said.
Asked about Magsaysay’s posts on social networking sites that her nine children were not being given adequate financial assistance apparently by Revilla Sr.’s legitimate children, the senator said, “That’s not true.”
He assured the Philippine National Police that the family would not stand in the way of an objective investigation of Ramgen’s death.
“I will leave this to the police … Let’s leave this to the police,” he said over and over during the short open forum after reading a prepared statement.