Bloodbath at Batasan Hills

A 75-year-old Chinese businessman and his 65-year-old Filipina wife were found dead inside their house in Barangay Batasan Hills, Quezon City the other night.

Tomas Syteh, a native of Amoy, China and his wife Natividad, a native of Malabon, were found lying in a pool of blood by a patrolling barangay tanod. Their heads were bashed.

Police are now looking for the houseboy, the only person living with the couple, to shed light on the incident.

Police Officer 2 Joseph Diño, officer-on-case, said the bodies were discovered by barangay tanod Eduardo Digno of Batasan Hills at 9:20 p.m. last Thursday while patrolling near the couple’s house at 1 Dalton street corner Doña Justina street , Filivest II Subdivision.

Digno found the husband in the bedroom and the wife in the dining area.

The Central Police District-Scene of the Crime Operations team said Syteh also had a stab wound in the face. The bodies were already in an advanced state of decomposition when discovered.

Authorities are currently coordinating with the relatives of the victims to conduct an inventory of the items inside the couple’s house to find out if robbery was involved.

In Pasay City, a four-year-old girl is in critical condition while her eight-month-old sister has been declared out of danger after their mother, allegedly suffering from mental distress, stabbed them yesterday morning inside their house.

Senior Superintendent Oscar Catalan, Pasay City police chief, said Ruby Ann, 4, sustained four stab wounds — two in the chest, one in the neck and one long open wound in the right side of her body.

The baby, Clarisse, sustained two stab wounds in the chest, but attending physicians declared her out of danger. Both are confined at the Philippine General Hospital.

The mother, Marivic Gadaingan, 25, a resident of 1 BAC 111 Don Carlos Village, Pasay City claimed she did not know what made her stab her two children.

At around 1:30 a.m. Gadaingan asked her husband Rogelio Basre, a security officer of Barangay 190 in Don Carlos Village, to go out to buy food.

After Basre left, the mother allegedly began hearing voices instructing her to pull up her shirt and hurt herself. Using an ice pick, she stabbed the upper and lower portion of her left breast.

She then approached her two children who were sleeping on the cushion and pulled out a three-inch knife and began stabbing the girls. When Basre returned home, he brought the mother to the Pasay City General Hospital and the two girls to the PGH.

Inspector Rodolfo Panaligan, head of the Pasay-Baclaran police sub-station, said they recovered three blood stained weapons. Aside from the ice pick and the three-inch knife, also recovered was a six-inch knife.

"I don’t know what came over me. Somebody was whispering instructions to my ear," Gadaingan said. Officers of Barangay 190 said doctors at the Ospital ng Maynila have scheduled her to undergo a psychiatric test today.

Catalan said the mother was scheduled to be brought to a mental institution last week, but the plan had to be put on hold due to financial difficulties. – Katherine Adraneda, Evelyn Macairan