Parañaque murder suspect nabbed in Dagupan

Elements of the local police in Dagupan City arrested a murder suspect who admitted killing his 54-year-old mother and seven-year-old niece in Parañaque City on Monday.

Superintendent Edgar Basbas, police chief in Dagupan City, identified the suspect as Gilbert Banzuela, 34, of Sun Valley Subdivision, Parañaque City.

Banzuela told local newsmen that he killed his mother, Zenaida and his niece, Jenlyn, by hitting them with a steel pipe seven times.

He said he had to kill them so he could steal his mother’s jewelry and P550 cash. After killing them, he said he hid their bodies in the comfort room and he even stayed in the house overnight.

He said he used the money he had stolen to buy food as his mother did not feed him and he was made to sleep in the garage.

His younger sister, Mary Grace, is Jenlyn’s mother. When she arrived in the house to fetch her daughter, Banzuela refused to let her enter his house, saying that their mother and Jenny were out. He prodded her to go home to her house in Fairview in Quezon City.

Banzuela fled the following day to Dagupan City and stayed in his uncle’s house.

Roderick Talon, his uncle, reported the incident to the police, which led to Banzuela’s arrest at around 4 p.m. on Thursday.

Basbas immediately coordinated with Parañaque City police chief, Ronald Estilles, to inform him ofBanzuela’s arrest and to discuss Banzuela’s turn over to the Parañaque police. — Eva Visperas and Rhodina Villanueva