Seeking Justice

Seeking Justice

(real names withheld)

Juancho is a man who has 3 daughters, aged 10, 5 and 3. He works as an IT staff at a large firm while his wife Dina stays home to mind the household. They have a house helper named Carla. He is also a leader in a Catholic Charismatic community, where their family's lives are centered upon. He is cheerful, always there to help others, a God-fearing person.

He was also recently arrested for the crime of rape-homicide.

It all happened quickly enough. As usual Juancho worked Friday in his office in Ortigas from 8:00am to 6:00pm. He fetched his wife from the mall, and they arrived home together at around 10:00pm. Upon arriving at their house, there was already a commotion among the villagers. A six-year old child was being searched with the help of the police. She was reported missing to the authorities at around 4:30pm that day, and the child has not been found yet. Juancho is friends with the parents of the child (they were actually neighbors), and it pained him so much that the child was missing. They all slept fitfully that night, with the child not being found so far.

Early the next day Saturday, Carla the house helper saw what seemed like a piece of cloth at the back area outside their house. She called the attention of Juancho to examine it more closely. It was the lifeless body of the child.

The village was consumed with grief and outrage, as it was discovered that the six-year old was apparently sexually molested. Her death was attributed to suffocation due to tissues stuffed in her mouth. It was indeed a numbing and horrifying incident.

The next day, actually the third day from the time the child was found missing, Carla found a strange thing in the washing machine situated at their backyard. It was the school bag of the child, right there in the wash basin of the machine. It was not there for two days, yet all of a sudden the bag was there. She told her kuya Juancho about the find. Juancho could not think rightly what was happening, so he bundled off the family to hear mass that day. By the time they came back home, he took a closer look at the bag, and henceforth reported the matter to the police authorities. In a short while the police came, and arrested Juancho as a prime suspect in the brutal rape-slay of a six-year old child.

It is now the sixth day since the day the child went missing, and Juancho is presently detained in the municipal jail awaiting the inquest proceedings. It is likely that this case will go on trial, according to Juancho's lawyer. Meanwhile his wife and three small children will have to go on without him. God gives, God takes away, but God's justice will prevail in the end.