A 36-year-old man held his 62-year-old mother hostage and threatened to kill her, his sister and a female employee of their hardware store along M.J. Cuenco Avenue in barangay San Roque, last Friday afternoon.
Carmencita Palanca, called the police for help because her married but jobless son, Ernesto, threatened to kill her with a box cutter for refusing to give him money.
When responding policemen led by Sr. Insp. Mario Monilar arrived at the store, they saw Ernesto already wild and enraged and threatening to kill even his own sister Ma. Rencita Abalon, 41, and the store verifier Teresita Reyes, 55.
Police report stated that Ernesto was under the influence of drugs when he asked his mother for money. She refused after seeing the state he was in and he got angry.
Carmencita told the police that her son asks money from her every day, sometimes even four times a day.
She also said she usually gives him P2,000 whenever he asks, but last Friday she refused to give in to his demands.
The mother reported that Ernesto underwent drug rehabilitation three times already, first in 2000, then again in 2001 and finally in 2003, but it seems it did not work because he is still allegedly using drugs until now.
Ernesto is now detained at the city jail. —Rizzi Ann C. Cerera, UP Tacloban intern/RAE