Man convicted for stabbing live-in partner's lover

CEBU, Philippines - For stabbing his live-in partner’s alleged lover, Regional Trial Court Judge Sylva Paderanga of Branch 16 convicted Conrado Manimog of homicide.

In her nine-page decision, Paderanga found sufficient evidence to hold Manimog guilty of the crime charged.

“With the admission of the accused that he stabbed the victim out of passion and obfuscation and from the scenario depicted by the prosecution witnesses, this court finds that the accused had committed the crime of homicide beyond reasonable doubt,” decision reads.

Paderanga meted the accused the penalty of six years and one day to eight years and one day imprisonment. She likewise, ordered the accused to pay the heirs of the victim P50,000 as moral damages and P50,000 as civil indemnity.

The case stemmed from an incident last August 18, 2007, when the accused allegedly saw his live-in partner Helde Halido and the victim Ahmid Tuyor, sleeping in the house of their neighbor, Adela Ybañez.

Prior to the incident, prosecution witness Ybañez, said that on August 17, 2007, Halido slept in her house at Lower Acacia, Barangay Kinasang-an, Pardo, Cebu City.

She added that while they were asleep, the victim entered their house.

Ybañez said that at 5:00 a.m. the following day, she heard “a banging sound” at their front door and heard a loud voice inviting them to drink. She recognized the voice as that of the accused.

Thereafter, Ybañez said that when she went out of her room she saw the accused stab the victim inside their sala while Halido was crying.

She added that she saw the Manimog drag Tuyor outside her house and there continued to stab the victim.

Ybañez’s daughter, Kimberly, testified that she saw the accused stab the victim and said “Imu giuyab akong asawa (You are having an affair with my wife).”

“Thereafter, the accused sat over the body of the victim who was lying on the ground and again stabbed the latter several times,” Kimberly testified.

After the incident, the accused voluntarily surrendered to the authorities.

Accused said that prior to the incident, he heard rumors that his live-in partner was allegedly having an affair with the victim. It was on August 18, 2007, when he was able to confirm the rumors.

He said the day before the incident, his partner told him that she will be going to the house of Ybañez.

There, he said he saw his live-in partner and the victim sleeping together with their legs intertwined.

He said he went to his brother’s house which was four houses away from the house of Ybañez, to confirm if the man whom his brother saw the other day was the same man whom his live-in partner, Halido, was sleeping with.

After confirming this, he said he got a knife and went back to the house of Ybañez and stabbed the victim out of anger.

Paderanga, in her findings, said the actuations of the accused in admitting the crime out of “passion and obfuscation” and voluntarily surrendering to the authorities earned him the sentence of a lesser penalty.

The accused was earlier sued for murder but was downgraded to homicide after the prosecution failed to prove the element of treachery.     - THE FREEMAN