DOJ indicts killer of actress’ mother

MANILA, Philippines - The self-confessed killer of the 75-year-old mother of actress Cherry Pie Picache has been indicted before a Quezon City court, the Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed yesterday.

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, chief of the DOJ’s National Prosecution Service, said a case for robbery with homicide was filed against 29-year-old Michael Flores last week before the Quezon City regional trial court.

The DOJ also approved a separate charge of qualified trespass to dwelling against him for seeking refuge in the house of businesswoman Lilibeth Lato in Sta. Rosa, where he was arrested on Oct. 8 after she called the police. The case was filed separately before the Sta. Rosa regional trial court in Laguna.

Flores was charged in court after investigating Assistant State Prosecutor Ferdinand Fernandez found probable cause against him during inquest proceedings at the DOJ last Oct. 9.

The prosecutor cited as basis Flores’ confession in a four-page affidavit that he killed Picache’s mother, Zenaida Sison.

Flores said he only intended to rob the victim but was forced to kill her after she recognized him. Having worked as her helper for six months, he said he had just taken shabu when he forced his way into Sison’s house using a screwdriver at around 3 a.m. last Sept. 19.

He was searching Sison’s room when the victim woke up and shouted for help. Flores said Sison resisted, prompting him to kill her using a piece of wood from a door he forcibly opened and a knife from the kitchen.

He said he went to another room and changed his bloodied shirt before leaving the house. Police said he took money and jewelry worth P500,000.

When Flores was arrested after weeks in hiding, he had dyed his hair and grown a moustache. Investigators said Flores sold or pawned the jewelry for P7,000 and police recovered only two cell phones he sold and a necklace he hocked at a pawnshop. 

Sison had been dead for several hours by the time her actress-daughter visited her house. Picache said her mother had not been answering phone calls.

Sison lived alone and only three women who clean her house in shifts and two gardeners had access to her house.– With Reinir Padua