44. 9 CRIMES INVOLVING KAPAMPANGANS THAT SHOCKED THE NATION

THE MAGALANG SERIAL-KILLER PRIEST (ca. 1813-1826)

Juan Severino Mallari, was a native priest, possibly of Macabebe who completed his religious studies at the University of Sto. Tomas in 1809. Thereafter, he was assigned as a coadjutor in Gapan, Lubao and Bacolor. The artistically-gifted priest  (he was an excellent calligrapher) was plagued by mental problems,  triggered by stressful episodes—first, by  a series of rejections from parishes he applied for—Orani, Mariveles, Lubao, port of Cavite and second, the strange malady that befell his mother. Thankfully, he was appointed as a cura of Magalang.

What happened next was the stuff of horror movies: over a period of 10 years, a series of unexplained murders took place in  Magalang -- a total of 57 murders! When the killer was finally arrested and identified, it was none other than the psychotic parish priest himself, Fr. Juan Severino Mallari! Spanish authorities hauled him off to Manila to be imprisoned , instead of committing him to a mental institution.

In his defense, Fr. Mallari claimed that he had murdered 57 of his parishioners "because he believed that he could by this means save his mother who, he persuaded himself, had been bewitched". The judge was not convinced. In 1840, after languishing in jail for 14 years, Fr. Mallari was executed by hanging --  the first Filipino priest executed by the Spanish colonial government, pre-dating the execution of the Gomburza priests by 32 years!

THE CASE OF THE SCHOOLGIRL MURDERESS (1929)

In 1929, a gruesome murder committed by a Kapampangan made the front pages of national dailies. It was shocking  enough that the offender was a woman, but worse still that she was but a teen-ager! Sixteen year old Avelina Teodoro, of San Fernando, confessed to the killing of  classmate, Constancia Pineda, also 16 years old, who was found dead from knife wounds in the school grounds of Arayat Elementary School.

During the investigation, police found blood stains on Avelina’s clothing and books.  When confronted, Avelina, at first, denied her role, pointing to Hilario Lugtu as the culprit. Two witnesses however, provided damaging testimonies. The first, Crisanto Reyes, testified that Avelina borrowed his single-edge penknife, which matched the size of the wounds on Constancia’s body. The same knife was later found in Avelina’s possession. Second witness Maximo Bundoc, also saw Avelina and Constancia on the day of the murder. Bundoc heard Avelina convinced  Constancia to go inside the toilet, where her lifeless body would be discovered.

It appeared that Avelina had indeed held a grudge against Constancia—she had been spreading shameful rumors about her, and opening her letters without her permission. This, Avelina confided to one Hilario Lugtu. Avelina alleged that Lugtu told her that “he will take care of Constancia”.

The teen killer was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus P1,000 indemnity to the deceased's heirs, a decision upheld and affirmed by the Supreme Court on 12 August 1930. Thus ended the sad, sorry tale of the young Kapampangan murderess, Avelina Teodoro, who tried to get away with murder, but got a life sentence instead.

THE PASUDECO SHOOTING RAMPAGE (1939)

On 12 July 1939, Pampanga was horrified with the news of the  murder of Pasudeco founder and president  Don Jose Leoncio (Pitong) De Leon, his associate Don Augusto Gonzalez and then provincial inspector Capt. Julian Olivas—all committed in the Pasudeco administrative office by the disgruntled Timbols of Mexico and their cohorts.

Brothers Carmelino and Gregorio Timbol, nephew Dalmacio and bodyguard Geronimo Buan had suddenly come to the Pasudeco office, demanding that De Leon and Gonzalez  sign a document that would give the planters 60% participation instead of the 55% they had at that time. When the two refused to sign, the Timbols drew their guns, and a commotion ensued. Pasudeco accountant Ambrosio Razon who heard the threats, immediately called the authorities.

Dispatched to the scene was the unarmed Capt. Olivas,  who tried to pacify the Timbols. He also warned them that the two Pasudeco bosses were under his protection, but as the constabulary officer headed for the door, the Timbols shot him several times and killed him. A melee ensued.  Buan shot Gonzalez in the chest, while Gregorio fatally shot De Leon while he was trying to run to the bathroom for cover. The Timbols made a quick get away through the window, but Pasudeco guards and employees succeeded in wounding Carmelino before they could escape.

The triple killing of Pampanga’s most affluent and influential businessmen and the provincial commander left the nation in shock. De Leon was an outstanding citizen and Pampanga’s first multi-millionaire industrialist,  while  Gonzalez, also a millionaire, was the brother of Bienvenido Gonzalez, UP President. Capt. Olivas had been cited for his bravery by Pres. Quezon.

Dalmacio Timbol and Geronimo Buan were shortly arrested, while the Timbol brothers surrendered to the police the next day.. On 20 April 1940, the Court of First Instance of Pampanga found Gregorio Timbol, Carmelino Timbol, Geronimo Buan and Dalmacio Timbol  guilty of three counts of murder. All, except Dalmacio were sentenced to death.

THE MALIWALU MASSACRE (1950)

The killings of peasants in Bacolor that has come to be known as the Maliwalu Massacre began with Captain Nonong Serrano,  a Captain of the Philippine Military who was also a commander  of the "Serrano Army", a private army that provided protection to  Jose B. Lingad, governor of Pampanga, right after he was elected in 1947. Tragically, Capt. Serrrano would be murdered by Huks, reportedly from Maliwalu.

Retaliation from the Serrano Army was quick. On Good Friday—7 April 1950—Serrano’s relatives and civilian guards descended upon Maliwalu and took nine farmers who were all executed. The rounding up of peasants suspected to be Huks continued and in all, 21 peasants were reportedly seized and summarily killed. It was former governor Pablo Angeles David who brought to light the bloody Maliwalu Massacre to  national consciousness, in rebuttal to the claim of  Pres. Elpidio Quirino that the Hukbalahap force has been decimated. This event would be a major contributing factor to the re-election bid of Lingad, who was blamed for the massacre. He was soundly  defeated by Rafael Lazatin in the 1951 governorship election. The Maliwalu Massacre ranks among the most prominent examples of state-perpetrated armed violence against  Filipino famers, along with the more recent Mendiola and Hacienda Luisita Massacre.

COSETTE’S  83-DAY KIDNAPPING ORDEAL (1964)

For about 3 suspenseful months, the whole nation was riveted to the news of the kidnapping of 15 year-old Cosette Tanjuaquio. The Maryknoll coed was staying in his uncle’s Loyola Heights’ home when, on 16 November 1964, she was snatched by 4 men where she was spirited away and just disappeared. A Php50,000 reward was put up by her distraught parents, Mr. & Mrs. Calixto Tanjuaquio.

The head of the Criminal Investigation Service (CIS) himself, Col. Benjamin Tolentino handled the Cosette case, which had a break only in 25 January 1966 when a counterfeit ring was uncovered. A member of the syndicate accidentally blurted out details of a “kidnapped girl”. This led to the dramatic rescue of Cosette who was found in a World War II air raid shelter next to a pig pen, on 7 February 1965. The dank, dirty pit, only 4 feet high, was accessible only through a narrow 2 ft. x 2 ft. crevice. It was, ironically, just 4 kilometers away from the Tanjuaquio’s Guagua home.

In 1966, the kidnappers—all Kapampangans-- were tried, proven guilty and sentenced by Judge Placido  Ramos. Orador Pingol and Nomer Jingco, the masterminds, were sentenced to death while followers Armando Morales and Angel David were given life sentences.  The judge recommended that the president commute the death penalty to reclusion perpetua for the reason that Pingol and Jingco never took advantage of the victim’s weakness in all the time Cosette was held captive,  hence they still had the “spark of divinity” that boded well for their rehabilitation.

LUCILA LALU’S  JIGSAW MURDER (1967)

28 year-old Lucila Lalu was a probinsyana from Candaba who, in 1957, went to Manila to try her luck in the big city. In a few years, she had became the common-law wife of policeman Aniano de Vera, and established 2 businesses: Lucy’s House of Beauty, and a nightclub, the Pagoda, in Sta. Cruz. On 28 May 1967, Lalu disappeared and two days later, policemen found her dismembered body in two separate areas—her torso along EDSA near the Guadalupe bridge, and her legs at the corner of Rizal Ave., and Malabon St., Her head was nowhere to be found.

The initial suspects were rounded up: Florante Relos, a waiter at the Pagoda and Lalu’s lover,  Aniano de Vera, the 42 year old estranged partner who was the last person ot see Lalu on May 28,  and Jose Luis Santiano, a dental student boarder at Lalu’s parlor.  Relos was released after finding no evidence against him, and de Vera was identified as the one with the strongest motive to kill Lalu-- he had threatened her and Relos after discovering their affair.

Then shockingly, two weeks after Lalu’s death, Santiano confessed to the crime to investigator Sgt. Ildefonso Labao. He alleged that on May 28, Lalu tried to seduced him. In rejecting her advances, Santiano claimed to have accidentally throttled her to death.  Then, he chopped up her body and disposed the parts, including her still-to-be-found head that he threw in a creek near Sct. Albano Q.C. The sloppy investigators had not bothered to check Santiano’s room because Labao said that “they did not consider it important”.

Two days later, Santiano recanted his confession, and the case was even more muddled when “mystery witness” Dr. Nora L. Ebio came forward to testify that Santiano was coerced by Labao into owning up to the crime. When Santiano’s room was finally checked, the door was found to have been forced open, Found inside were bloodstains on the floor, kitchen knife, razor blade and a woman’s stockings—supposed pieces of evidence that the fiscal found so unconvincing, he had the NBI take over. Today, the Lalu chop-chop murder remains an open case.

THE CRIME AGAINST MAGGIE’S VIRTUE (1967)

Maggie de la Riva was already a rising star of  TV and films, when the most despicable crime was committed against her virtue.  On 26 June 1967, while en route back to her New Manila home from  a TV appearance, she was intercepted by a group of young men and taken to the Swanky Hotel in Pasay City where the helpless 25 year old was tortured, punched and then raped. The perpetrators included  by Basilio Pineda, Jr., Eduardo Aquino, Rogelio Cañal and Jaime Gomez Jose, a combo player and the son of a well-to-do doctor from Pampanga, Dr. Jose Jose.

After the dastardly deed was done, the group dumped de la Riva in front of the Free Press building where a taxi driver took her home. There, the sobbing Maggie told her mother of her rape. It was only a matter of time before the assailants were found.

First to fall was Jose, arrested near his Makati home. All his co-conspirators were captured in succession. Brought to trial, one of the suspects, Pineda said that they “wanted to teach her a lesson” after she allegedly almost hit their car. He then offered  her P1,000 to do a striptease act, to which de la Riva supposedly complied. The court found this story incredulous, and handed out a guilty verdict for the crime of kidnapping with rape. Judge Lourdes San Diego meted out death sentences by electrocution on 2 October 1967.  The accused later appealed, but lost, with the Supreme Court upholding the RTC decision in 1971.

On 17 May 1972, Jose, Pineda Jr. and Aquino were executed in the electric chair in Muntinlupa, despite a last-minute plea for mercy by Jose’s mother in Malacañang. The fourth convict, Cañal, had died of a drug overdose in 1971. Jose, pale and dazed, was the first to die, in the electrocution that was witnessed by his father. His last words were: “Avoid bad companions and obey your parents”. Their deaths provided closure to the tragic De la Riva episode, considered as one of the most sensational cases in post-war Philippines.

MARK DIZON,  SERIAL EXPAT KILLER  (2010)
28-year old computer technician Mark Dizon ranks as one of the most prolific serial killers in the country, with 9 murders attributed to him, three of whom were expats whom he targetted. Dizon befriended  foreign nationals in Angeles City to gain their trust, offering to fix their computers. Once Dizon gained access to their homes, he shot them, stealing their electronic gadgets and equipment, in the process. His victims included Canadian Geoffrey Bennun and girlfriend Abegail Helina (bodies found on July 12), British James Porter and companion Melissa Madarang (found July 16), American Albert Mitchell, his Filipina wife Janet Andrenada, plus their 3 housekeepers. A massive manhunt was launched by the police, and in the afternoon of July 27, Dizon was finally captured in San Fernando, La Union. Found in his possession was a caliber .38 revolver with eight bullets, a laptop, and a cellular phone . A family friend of the Mitchell's recognized the suspect as a Facebook friend of the Mitchells' daughter. Dizon is incarcerated at the Angeles City jail without bail, and is charged for nine counts of murder, filed in three separate cases of five-count murder and two double-murder charges.

THE EDEJER FAMILY MASSACRE (2013)

In the late afternoon of 21 September 2013, in a quiet subdivision in Angeles, seven members of the Edejer household were gunned down by a group of men who forced their way into the residence. Initially, the fatalities numbered 6—Corazon (47, the mother), her 19 year old son Kenneth, housemaid Teresita Camiling, 40, workers Nelson Dominico, 17,  and Benigno Villanueva Jr., 52, and a woman identified only as Kay-kay (20). The 42 year old father, Nicolas Edejer, a fish trader, sustained a gunshot wound in his head, and was taken to a nearby hospital, only to  succumb a day later. Spared was the 9-year old Edejer son who arrived from school, after the incident.

A safe believed to contain cash was brought down by the  killers to the garden. It was subsequently abandoned after they failed to open it. The band of criminals escaped using the Edejer pick-up truck. A “Task Force Edejer” was organized by Sr. Superintendent Oscar Albayalde to track down the killers, but a year after the massacre, investigators remain clueless, and the case still has to be solved to this day.

SOURCES:

MAGALANG SERIAL KILLER PRIEST

Tantingco, Robert P., Peanut Gallery. “Magalang’s Serial-Killer Priest”

 THE SCHOOLGIRL MURDERESS

Graphic Magazine, October 1929 issue

 PASUDECO SHOOTING RAMPAGE:

‘The Life of Jose de Leon y Joven by Jose N. de Leon III’, Performance Printing Center

Criminal Case Nos. 6294, 6295 and 6296, The People of The Philippines, Plaintiff vs. Gregorio P. Timbol, Et Al, Accused

Newspaper excerpts taken from ‘In Memoriam Don Jose Leoncio de Leon y Hizon and Don Augusto Gonzalez y Sioco’, News (Press) Clipping, Philippines Today and Tomorrow, Volume 1, Year 1939, Clipping Bureau

 MALIWALU MASSACRE

Singsing Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 1: “BRavehearts: Kapampangan Rebels, Radicals and Renegades Who Changed Philippine History

 COSETTE’S 83 DAY ORDEAL

Source: “Rescued”, by Jean Pope, The Sunday Times Magazine, 21 February 1965, pp. 18-

 LUCILA LALU JIGSAW  MURDER

“Luckless Lucila and her House of Horrors”, by P. A. Zapanta, Sunday Times Magazine, 2 July 1967. pp. 10-15.

“The Barrio’s Lucia to the City’s Lucila”, by P.A. Zapanta, Sunday Times Magazine, 9 July 1967. pp. 18-19.

 MAGGIE DE LA RIVA

“Maggie, A Rare Kind of Virtue”, Sunday Times Magzine, 16 July 1967, p. 22

“Heroine in a Real-Life Tragedy”, by Benjamin V. Afuang, Sunday Times Magazine, 16 July 1967, pp. 26-31

“My Case Has Started A Revolution,”Maggie de la Riva as told to Jean Pope, Sunday Times Magazine, 13 August 1967, pp. 18-22.

“Life with Mother”, by Jean Pope, Sunday times Magazine, 20 August 1967, pp.”18-2

 Additional Photos: http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/05/17/1972-the-rapists-of-maggie-dela-riva/

Serial Killer Finally Falls. http://www.philstar.com/nation/596957/angeles-city-serial-killer-finally-falls

 The Mark Dizon Case

 Thanks to: Jason Paul Laxamana for the tip

Photo: Punto! Central Luzon

 EDEJER FAMILY MASSACRE

6 Killed in Massacre at Home of Pampanga Fish Trader, by Tonette Orejas, INQInquirer Central Luzon September 21, 201

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/492101/6-killed-in-massacre-at-home-of-pampanga-fish-trader

Photo source: Justice for Edejer Family FB Page,

https://www.facebook.com/Justice-for-Edejer-Family-148014295408275/

FILIPIKNOW.NET, Castro, Alex R., 10 Notorious Crimes That Shocked the Philippines, http://www.filipiknow.net/sensational-crimes-in-the-philippines-1960s/