Dexter laid to rest, family seeks justice

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga – There may be forgiveness, but justice must be served first.

This was the call made by the family of slain four-year-old hostage Dexter Balala, whose remains were interred at the public cemetery here yesterday afternoon.

Thousands of people came out of their homes along the route to the cemetery to bid Dexter a final goodbye as the funeral cortege passed.

"We can find it in our hearts to forgive, but we are just human and we want justice first," said Dexter’s grandmother, Virginia Balala, who had watched helplessly as her grandson was held hostage and stabbed 13 times by his distraught assailant, Diomedes Talbo and then shot by police officers responding to the crime. Dexter died of a fatal gunshot wound in his heart and another, equally fatal, stab wound in his left kidney. Talbo’s body was riddled with 60 bullet wounds after the police peppered him with bullets.

The chapel along MacArthur Highway where the requiem Mass was held spilled over with mourners and sympathizers. Over a hundred people joined the funeral cortege in about 30 vehicles as Dexter’s small, white coffin was carried on foot from the Balala residence along an abandoned railway track in Quebiawan to the chapel for the necrological services. Motorists stopped respectfully on road shoulders to let the funeral cortege pass.

Dexter’s playmates were also part of the funeral cortege, wearing white ribbons carrying the message "Justice for Dexter" around their heads. Dexter’s parents, Darius and Salvacion, both wearing white T-shirts, appeared to have accepted their only son’s death and they were calm during the requiem Mass.

"What I want is justice," Darius said, insisting that it was not the stab wounds inflicted by Talbo that killed his son, but the bullet fired from a police officer’s gun that ripped through the little boy’s heart.