Qatar expat, one of the victims of Ampatuans
Method To Madness
For the fallen
By Patricia Evangelista
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:30:00 12/05/2009
THERE are two lechonsito girls, sugar and honey. Their mother Cecile has not been home for two years, caring for children in Qatar. Her husband Eduardo stayed in Tacurong, licensing officer 3 for the Tacurong City government. The overseas work was necessary to pay for the tuition of the two college girls. Honey studied in Manila, Sugar in Iloilo.
Both girls had not seen their mother for two years. Sugar had not seen her father for one.
On Nov. 23, two weeks after Cecile came home for Honey’s graduation, the couple stepped into a service car, a red Toyota Vios driven by a Tacurong City Hall employee named Wilhelm Palabrica. Eduardo, 53, had suffered a mild stroke days before, and Cecile had made arrangements to bring her husband to Cotabato City for a CT scan. With them were Mercy Palabrica, Wilhelm’s cousin, and Daryll de los Reyes. Both were also city hall employees.
On the road to Shariff Aguak, the red Vios with its cargo of five was stopped along with a convoy of vehicles from Buluan, Maguindanao.
All five bodies have been found.
Sugar is petite, with straight black hair falling just beneath her shoulders. Honey keeps her hair in a ponytail, and holds her sister’s hand. They are quiet girls, soft-spoken.
The family wants justice, wants law implemented by a government without fear or favor. They want every murderer found, to the last man. Those men were animals.
The girls wish they could hug their parents, but the bodies are too battered to hold.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20091205-240358/For-the-fallen
