Talisay chop-chop case: Downgrade of murder to homicide sought

CEBU, Philippines - One of the three persons accused in the murder of two women in Talisay City whose bodies were later dismembered and dumped in different parts of Cebu testified in court in the hope of getting his case downgraded to homicide.

Joseph Roy Cellar claimed he was the one who killed Eva Mae Peligro and her cousin Gwendolyn Balasta.

Cellar said he was drinking with Richard Gudelosao, another one of the accused, in the latter’s house on July 24, 2008 and Gudelosao confided to him his problem that he was about to evicted from the house.

This was because Peligro, who was the fiancée of Gudelosao’s younger brother, allegedly passed on intrigues to his brother and mother in the US, which led to the cutting off of his monthly allowance.

Gudelosao was a taxi driver while Cellar was the caretaker of his house.

Cellar added he went to the room of Peligro to talk with her but the talk ended badly and Peligro and Balasta started beating him up.

He said he strangled Peligro until she suffocated and did the same with Balasta.

Cellar said when the two were dead, he went outside where Gudelosao slept in the bench and confessed he had killed them. Gudelosao allegedly got angry and Cellar dropped to his knees asking for forgiveness, claiming he was “out of his mind” when he did it.

He then used a knife in cutting up the victims, the knife was later recovered in the taxi driven by Gudelosao.

Cellar’s lawyer Salvador Solima said he let him testify in court in hopes it will downgrade the offense from double murder to homicide.

Solima said there was no conspiracy in the killing of the two victims, but prosecution lawyer Julius Caesar Entice said the testimony of Cellar was all lies. He also asked how Gudelosao can bear to claim innocence in the incident.

“If you could look at the picture I don’t think the case of double murder will be downgraded into homicide,” Entice said.

Gudelosao and Cellar together with Jean Antonette Medalle, the common-law wife of Gudelosao, were charged in court for the murders of Peligro and Balasta.

Earlier, Gudelosao said it was he who had strangled Peligro and Balasta before chopping them up with a kitchen knife.

The body parts were placed in 13 garbage bags before these were thrown separately by the three accused in the mountain of barangays of Talisay City, Toledo City, Naga and Minglanilla.  (FREEMAN)