Ramona 'did not ask for help,' sis says

MANILA, Philippines - A sister of slain actor Ram Revilla (real name Ramgen Bautista) clarified yesterday that her elder sister, Ramona Bautista, did not ask for help after their brother was killed last October.

Ramona was with Ram and his girlfriend, actress Janelle Manahan, when a man wearing a mask barged into his room on Oct. 28, 2011. The unidentified attacker shot and stabbed Ram and shot Manahan in the face.

Manahan told Assistant City Prosecutor Bert Fabros two weeks ago that she overheard Ramona asking her sister, Gail Bautista-Furuyama, for help.

“Mara (Ramona) never asked for help. She just said, ‘Ga, pasundo na please,’” Furuyama said when asked by Fabros as to why Ramona called her.

Fabros is handling the supplemental complaint, which Manahan filed to include Furuyama and her husband, Hiro, in the murder and frustrated murder case in connection with the attack.

The Furuyama couple is tagged into the murder case because “Mara (allegedly) called for her (Furuyama) help right after the incident.”

According to Furuyama, she was with Hiro, sister Raegene, and brother Ramon Joseph at a coffee shop in BF Homes when Ramona called her.

“I only learned of the shooting incident when Sen. Bong Revilla’s son Luigi Santos told (Ramon Joseph or) RJ,” Furuyama said.

Ramon Joseph and Ramona are two of the seven accused of Ram’s murder. Ramon Joseph is detained together with five co-accused at the Parañaque City Jail, while Ramona fled to Turkey and remains at large. The seven have denied participation in the crime.