BF of man jailed for stepdad’s death nabbed while visiting lover

MANILA, Philippines–Together again, this time behind bars.

A man identified as the cohort of a makeup artist who killed his stepfather on Friday was arrested on Sunday, as he visited his boyfriend in prison. When Mark Joseph Aga, 21, went to the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (QCPD-CIDU) detention center in Camp Karingal on Sunday, all he wanted was to visit his live-in partner, Daryl Diamante, 27, who was accused of killing his stepfather Alden Resoco, 54, in their house on Laura Street in Barangay (village) Old Balara.

Little did Aga know that he would also end up behind bars. Diamante stabbed Resoco several times with a broken bottle on Friday evening, not Wednesday as earlier reported, over an argument about the former’s relationship with Aga. Resoco died due to his injuries while Diamante surrendered to the police on Saturday.

By Saturday, the police had identified Aga as another suspect in the killing. Based on witnesses’ accounts, Aga struck Resoco with a plastic chair as Diamante stabbed him. But Aga apparently did not know that the police was looking at him as a suspect. When he visited Diamante on Sunday, eyewitnesses to the crime, including Resoco’s 13-year-old daughter, were also at the QCPD-CIDU headquarters, giving their statements on the killing.

They immediately pointed him out to the police, prompting PO3 Victorio Guerrero to place him under arrest. In an interview with the Inquirer on Sunday, Resoco’s cousin, Ludyfina Requiero, 52, said that Aga had denied his part in the killing.

“But people saw him help [Diamante] by hitting [Resoco] with the chair,” Requiero added.

On the other hand, Resoco’s daughter told the Inquirer that she would push through with the murder complaint for the benefit of 17 other siblings who were angry over their father’s fate. But the young girl said that she herself held no anger toward her stepbrother or Aga who she said she was actually close to.

“He was also acting in self-defense but his anger took over,” the young girl said of Diamante, adding that her father was somewhat drunk and had provoked Diamante by punching him first.–Jaymee T. Gamil