MANILA, Philippines - A bank executive was stabbed dead along with her 75-year-old mother and their 22-year-old maid in their house in Sta. Cruz, Manila before dawn yesterday.
The bodies of Evelyn Tan, 40, assistant vice president of Banco de Oro’s loans department in Makati; her mother, Teresa; and their maid, Kristina Bartolay were found in the living room of their house along Yakal street shortly before 4 a.m. after they did not answer the calls of a car rental firm driver sent to take Tan to the airport. Tan was reportedly preparing for a morning flight to Beijing to attend a meeting.
Driver Francis Lalin said he arrived at Tan’s house before 4 a.m. and knocked on the door but no one answered. He said he continued knocking for about 30 minutes more, but told barangay officials when he sensed something was wrong.
Police investigators said all three victims bore stab wounds on the neck and different parts of the body.
Tanod eyed as suspect
Myrna Benitez, 41, a housewife whose house is located behind Tan’s residence, said she was awakened at past 3 a.m. when she heard voices crying for help.
She said when she went out to check, she saw Nestor Delizalde Jr., a tanod from an adjacent barangay, climb down a tree in front of her house. The tree is beside a creek and the balcony of Tan’s house.
Benitez said she cursed at Delizalde and asked him what he was doing there. “Ate, nadisgrasya ko. Wala ka nang nakita, ha (I accidentally killed them. You didn’t see anything)?” he reportedly said.
She said she saw Delizalde holding something but could not tell whether it was bloodied “because it was still dark at that time.”
Once outside, the housewife said Delizalde took some crisp P100 bills, threw them onto the street and told onlookers that “they didn’t see anything.”
Police Officer 3 Rodel Benitez said the suspect went home, took a bath, changed clothes and fled.
Delizalde, an alleged drug addict who was charged with robbery in 2010, is now the subject of a manhunt by the Manila Police District (MPD) homicide section, headed by Chief Inspector Joey de Ocampo.
Police said Delizalde may have entered the house through the back where a creek was located. Neighbors said the suspect, wearing bloodstained clothes, was seen boarding a tricycle in front of the house.
Tan’s bag was missing, leading investigators to suspect that robbery was the primary motive for the massacre.
The suspect’s father, Nestor Sr., said his son had been acting strangely prior to the incident and had been selling his personal belongings, apparently because he needed a large amount of money.
However, Benitez said the father could have been hiding something from the investigators.
“Of course he will not tell the police everything he knows because it was his son,” she said.