Love story gone wrong

MANILA, Philippines - Noel Orate and Nanette Castelo-Daza were introduced at a wedding and in almost 13 years of being together, they called each other “Heart.”

To Noel’s daughter, Nowie, Nanette was like a “stepmother” even though the two never married.

Nowie and her older brother, Noel Jr., claimed the two lived together for years in a condominium unit at President’s Tower in Quezon City. However, in a statement distributed during a press conference called by the Daza family on Sunday, it was stated that the couple “have not lived together in the same residence, contrary to numerous news reports.”

Noel’s children said Nanette was always present during every family gatherings, making their father’s killing at Nanette’s house on Friday unthinkable.

There are two versions of the circumstances that led to Noel’s death and how their relationship ended - one from the Daza family and another coming from Noel’s children.

Both camps are saying they have proof of who called it quits. A lawyer for the Daza family said they would show text messages supposedly from Noel, expressing that he wanted Nanette back.

But Noel Jr. claimed he has his father’s phone as proof. “There were messages from ex-congresswoman that she wanted to reconcile (with my father),” he said.

Nanette claimed Noel was drunk and carrying a gun when he went to her house to convince her to get back together. Lawyer Alfredo Villamor, who represents Allan Robes, Nanette’s son-in-law, claimed Noel went there because he “wanted to rekindle their relationship.”

But Noel’s children maintained it was their father who had broken up with Nanette and that it was the former lawmaker who summoned their father to the house because she supposedly wanted their father back.

Both Nowie and Noel Jr. remember their father telling each of them that he had broken up with Nanette. “It’s over,” was how they remembered telling each of them that the relationship had ended.

Nowie said her father told her to “still treat (Nanette) like you treat me, with utmost respect.”

Both Noel and Nanette had come from two failed marriages, which had been annulled.

Noel Jr. said he was apprehensive at first about the relationship but said he eventually came to appreciate his father’s girlfriend. “She (Nanette) was very helpful. She was the one who endorsed my scholarship,” Noel Jr. said.

The victim’s son said Noel and Nanette traveled together and even visited Noel’s parents in the United States and brother in Canada.

Nowie said the couple played tennis together and in the years the two were together, it was Nanette “who was the one I grew up with.”

Nowie said they didn’t see any sign that the relationship was already on the rocks. She said Nanette spent the last Christmas and New Year with them.

When they were told by their father last month that the relationship had ended, Noel’s children said their father did not give any reason. They said Noel was not the type who would bad-mouth a person, especially the woman he had been with for more than 12 years.

“It’s really a surprise why it happened to him,” Noel Jr. said of his slain father.