Sibulan Son who ate mother's entrails charged with parricide – Negros police

NEGROS ORIENTAL, Philippines – Police authorities filed a parricide case against a suspected drug-crazed son who may have raped and stabbed to death his widowed mother, then ate her entrails raw and gouged out her eye on Monday, August 28.

It is a crime that has sent shockwaves among the people of Negros Island and triggered a tsunami of online debates over a state-sponsored war on drugs.

Senior Inspector Nelson Bindaño Lamoco, chief of police of Sibulan town in Negros Oriental, told Rappler on Tuesday, August 29, that Roger Barrera Manaban, 52, who slaughtered his own mother, 86-year-old Josefina Barrera Manaban, using a 12-inch long improvised knife, will be subjected to drug testing at the crime laboratory of Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office on Wednesday.

In a phone interview, Lamoco disclosed that both the police and the siblings of Josefina suspect Roger, who left Negros years ago and had returned to the province only last year, was "possibly high on illegal drugs", based on the suspect's unusual behavior and gestures a day before the killing happened.

According to Lamoco, quoting testimonies by Roger's close relatives, the suspect had been living a nomad's life after he returned to Negros Oriental from Davao City, where his wife and his two kids live.

According to the suspect’s sibling, Manaban underwent treatment in a mental institution the previous year.

On Saturday afternoon, August 27, Roger arrived at his mother's house in Barangay Bolocboloc, Sibulan. The next day, the unthinkable happened, which in the words of Lamoco was "unheard of" in all his years of police work.

In a text message to Rappler, village chief Dennis Omoso said they could not confirm whether the suspect was a drug user since it was only last Saturday when barangay officials of Bolocboloc saw Roger for the first time.

"We received an alarm call in our station at around 7 am and we went to the place of concern where we learned that the crime had been committed possibly at around 6 am. We immediately collared the suspect, who was drenched in blood at that time," recounted Lamoco in Bisaya language.

The suspect, after killing his mother, tried to flee and even tried to snatch a 2-year-old child as his hostage, but the attempt was foiled due to the quick intervention by responding neighbors. Police said residents were alarmed seeing Roger's body and face soaked in blood.

Upon checking Josefina's house, police found a lifeless woman, her body lying on the wooden floor with her clothes removed, her innards splattered on the floor, and one of her eyes already gouged out, witnesses said.

An extrajudicial confession of the suspect, Lamoco said, revealed he had attempted to rape his own mother, then killed her by stabbing and slicing her body and face multiple times.

"Murag ni siya nasudlon ug demonyo. Nagsalimuang kong moestorya. Dili consistent. Siga ug pula ang iyang mga mata ug sige pangagot ang baba," said Lamoco of the suspect. (He seemed to have been possessed by a demon. He was hallucinating when he talked. His statements were inconsistent. His eyes were bloody red, and he was acting as if he was perpetually chewing something.)

"Aron masuta kung drug user ni siya, atong ipa-drug test kay mao say request sa mga tawo. Posible pud nga nalisuan lang ni siya sa iyang maayong pangisip," the police chief said. (In order to find out whether he was a drug user, we will subject him to a drug test, as requested by the public. It is also possible that he had lost his mind).

Police said Josefina was laid to rest at the town's public cemetery Tuesday, as the people of Sibulan and neighboring towns are still reeling from shock and disbelief.

Lomoco told Rappler that though Roger's kin had expressed wishes of seeing the suspect killed last Monday without necessarily apprehending him, the police chief said they still have to abide by what the law says on arresting a crime suspect.

Son who ate mother's entrails charged with parricide – Negros police

 

Saw this on facebook right after the bike accident. It made me so sick I couldn't sleep.

 

I was wondering if he had stopped taking such drugs and this was the effect but

That statement is consistent with some heavy drug users I have been "acquainted" with. Its likely he was loony. Its possible he was given drugs by someone who thought it would be funny to give shabu to the loony toons and the combination drove him over the edge.

 

Whilst I generally agree that the war on drugs is a failure, that harm reduction strategies, legalisation/licensing of many drugs would be a possible step forward for the misery experienced by many users I think I need to provide some information here.

Yes, certain drugs do exacerbate underlying illnesses and/or 'bring them on'. Shabu or methamphetamine, cocaine and cannabis with a heavy THC content being but a few that come instantly to mind. In my career I've seen too many kids with psychosis that in my view was made worse by cannabis (generally seen as a relaxant, but more anxiolytic in property as any user would testify who has experienced paranoia!)

Amphets and their cousins stimulate, sleep deprive and exacerbate the centres of the brain associated with dysfunction (as seen in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery studies) in psychosis. No doubt this poor chaps psychosis was made worse by ingesting whatever he smoked/injected/swallowed.

In terms of why he wasn't on an atypical neuroleptic is easy to answer. A couple of years ago a poor lady in my baranguay endured first episode psychosis. No drug usage, just quite unusual...puepural psychosis...that's where post natal (or indeed very severe depression) can go.

Being the helpful sort I wrote to a local professional suggesting a certain compound for treatment. He went bananas at me as no Filipino patient he knows could afford this type of treatment. Having good intentions and no suss got me into hot water.

Anyway to cut a long story short, said lady is on an 'affordable' but not very effective compound now. Every now and again the family tell me they can't afford this treatment and would it be ok if they stopped/cut the dose? Aye, the Phils...yada yada.

Most psychotic patients are disabled by negative symptoms. They don't go on mad killing sprees. It looks to the layman like severe depression with a touch of the 'odd'. This was very unusual and no doubt made worse by street substances. A salutary warning to those that dabble.

Now, at the cutting edge, and not my field there are some 'creative' sorts at work in psychiatry as we speak using ketamine for treatment resistant very severe depression, MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin derivatives for a range of other disorders. Pretty out there stuff in my view and as a practitioner in the field I'm waiting on more large scale studies/approval by government/professional bodies before I reach for my pad in clinic.

Then again, who I am to preach? I probably ingest the most harmful drug on the planet too often and too excess. Now where's my Don Papa?

C

 

You have mentioned this a couple times as if it were a fact, but as I understand the article, there are more than one "close relatives (saying) the suspect had been living a nomad's life after he returned to Negros Oriental from Davao City" and only ONE individual " sibling (saying) Manaban underwent treatment in a mental institution the previous year."

I am inclined to believe the first set of close relatives who do not mention a mental institution as it is very unusual for locals to be institutionalized for a year so that sounds more fantasy than reality.

 

I am not questioning the part where loonys get locked up. I am sure they have places like you mention. I am questioning why they would lock him up AND THEN let him go after a year when he is obviously still a danger.

Add that question to the simple explanation of contacting the "wife in Davao" by phone or Facebook and they could easily get to the bottom of it. Just ask if he was with her or in a mental institution for any part of the last year.