By Anthony Giron
IMUS, Cavite – A double murder charge was filed at the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office here against the suspect in the killing of the wife and daughter of an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in General Trias City.
Provincial Chief Prosecutor Gavino B. Mapanoo said two counts of murder were filed on Wednesday by General Trias police against Ruel Galvan Cabatingan for the deaths of Ruby Benalla Gamos and seven-year-old Shaniah Nicole.
Senior Superintendent William M. Segun, Cavite Police Provincial Office acting director, said Cabatingan surrendered to police in Eastern Samar as accompanied by his brother, a resident of Borongan.
Interviewed over DzMM radio, Senior Supt. Tranquilino Araral III, Eastern Samar police director, said Cabatingan has admitted to the crime.
“Ang sinabi niya, he did it, pinatay niya iyung dalawa by choking,” Araral said.
Cabatingan’s surrender came a day after the police filed charges against him at the Cavite Provincial Prosecutor’s Office.
According to police investigation, Cabatingan was Ruby’s alleged “boyfriend.”
Cabatingan was reportedly a high school batch mate of Marlon Gamos, Ruby’s husband.
At the time of the killing, Marlon was at the United Arab Emirates working as a seaman. Marlon went home a day after he was informed by relatives about the tragedy.
The bodies of Ruby and Shaniah Nicole were found by police in a state of decomposition in a room of an apartment unit in Kensington Subdivision-Phase I, noon of Dec. 11.
Karen Gamos Bongalos, a relative, sought the assistance of subdivision security guards in opening the unit, following a request from Marlon who was bothered about not being able to contact his wife and daughter.
Police investigators said there was no sign of forced entry in the unit when they found it, noting however, some valuables, including the family car, were missing.
The car was later found near a cemetery in Barangay Alapan in Imus.
Autopsy reports showed Shaniah Nicole died from “asphyxia due to suffocation” while Ruby from a “traumatic head injury.”
A witness said Cabatingan was seen at the victims’ house in General Trias on Dec. 7, four days before the killings were discovered.