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
EDEJER FAMILY
MASSACRE
6 Killed in Massacre at Home of Pampanga Fish Trader,
by Tonette Orejas, INQInquirer Central Luzon September 21, 201
Photo source: Justice for Edejer Family FB Page,
FILIPIKNOW.NET, Castro, Alex R., 10 Notorious Crimes That Shocked the Philippines, http://www.filipiknow.net/sensational-crimes-in-the-philippines-1960s/
