City Hall workers detained after wife "catches" them in pension house

CEBU, Philippines - After three hours inside a room of a pension house along Manalili Street, Cebu City Tuesday night, two City Hall workers were detained after being met outside by an enraged wife.

The 47-year-old wife, who asked not to be named, told The FREEMAN that her husband, 45, and his alleged paramour, 30, stayed inside the pension house for over three hours.

She was waiting outside with her cousin until she saw the woman go out of the building at around 8:30 p.m. The wife then attacked the woman with an umbrella.

“I had an instinct that they were inside the pension house,” the wife said in Cebuano.

The woman sustained minor contusions on her head and some scratches on her left cheek.

“Nakabati tingali akong husband nga nagka gubot na mao wa na gyud siya mi gawas ako nalang nakit-an akong bana sa may hagdanan,” she said. (Perhaps my husband heard the commotion so he never went out of the room. I later saw him at the stairs.)

A roving barangay patrol car stopped the commotion and took them to the Waterfront Police Station. 

The husband and the alleged paramour are currently detained while waiting for official charges. The two, according to the wife, are casual workers at the City Hall’s planning and development office.

The couple has been fighting since March over the same woman. The wife accused her of flirting with her husband.

The two women had tried to settle their problem by talking with each other three times. However, this failed and last Tuesday’s incident was not their first physical scuffle.

The wife last March 15 attacked the woman in Barangay Mabolo.

“Bothered na gyud kayo akong mga anak, hilabi na ang akong eldest,” she said. (My children are already affected by this issue.)

Meanwhile, the woman told The FREEMAN that the accusation is not true.

“Di gyud na tinuod ang ilang gi-pasangil nako,” she said, adding that they became close friend because of work.

But when asked by a member of the media what she learned form her ordeal, she answered, “Dili mayo mog duol og minyo kay ma develop ka.” (It’s best to avoid married men.)

PO2 Janice Tamayo of the Women and Child Protection Desk said the wife underwent a trauma assessment, which they will use as evidence against the husband and the woman.

The wife, however, is willing to settle the issue with her husband for the sake of their three children but is determined to file a case against the woman. — (FREEMAN)