Hostage-taker’s kids doing good in school, say teachers

TRENTO, Agusan del Sur - It was a father’s love and anguish over his daughters’ misfortunes that drove Diomedes Talbo to desperate measures when he took four-year-old Dexter Balala hostage at the Philtranco bus terminal in Pasay City on May 31.

And why should he not love his daughters? Both Glaisa and Lovely (not their real names) were among the top 10 of their respective classes. Despite this, they had been molested by the people they trusted the most. Their mother, Florida, is working in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

"He must have been confused on what to do or he might have been consumed with rage toward Ricardo Ubay, driving him mad and go berserk. He probably thought it was Ubay he was holding hostage, not Dexter Balala," one of Glaisa’s friends said in Tagalog.

Glaisa’s teachers Cenon Laparan and Yolanda Tagal, and her friends all agreed that Talbo’s daughters were in the top 10 of their respective classes, despite their lack of parental care.

Center for abused kids

Trento municipal social worker Teresita Cañas told The STAR that Agusan del Sur needs a center for child abuse victims, where they can seek counsel and care.

Had there been such a center, Cañas said Glaisa and her sister could have been rescued and given help.

Cañas said Glaisa told her that her 70-year-old maternal grandfather had allegedly sexually molested her on Nov. 20, 2000.

She said she offered Glaisa temporary refuge in her home but the girl refused, explaining that she could not leave her younger sister and brother in the hands of her relatives.

"Glaisa really withstood her misery just so she could watch over her siblings, to protect her grandfather from shame and to keep the family name clean," Cañas said.

Glaisa’s classmates recalled that they noticed that the Talbo children’s school performance deteriorated as their home situation got worse.

"You could see sadness etched on their faces because of the heavy problems they could tell no one about. Their food was rationed because their aunt and uncle were not earning very much," one of them said.

According to Glaisa’s best friend, Roxanne Masipit, daughter of Trento policeman SPO3 Samuel Masipit, "Glaisa was raped in October 2001. She told us about the rape but she did not want to file a complaint against her uncle (Ubay) despite the fact that we were willing to help her because he threatened to kill her sister and brother."

With their father’s burial set for today in the Isabela town of San Mateo, the Talbo children’s fate is uncertain.

Talbo, 37, will be buried in the town’s public cemetery before noon today, his sister Josie said.

Josie said her brother’s last sacrament will be a posthumous reunion with his children, whom he had not seen in five years since he and his wife Florida separated in 1997.

Besides his three children with Florida, Talbo is survived by his second wife, Lydia Gantice, their three-year-old son Jolas, his mother Rosita and four sisters.

Children’s custody

The Talbo family wants to have custody of the slain hostage-taker’s children, but the three said on a TV talk show that they intend to return to their maternal relatives here after attending their father’s burial.

Cañas, however, recommended that the Talbo children be put in the custody of Butuan City welfare and social development officer Aldevina Mordeno because she feels they "are not safe" with their maternal relatives.

"(Their uncle) Artemio Solis lives with his father Juan, who is accused of molesting Glaisa," she said.

She said she had worked with Solis, an engineer, at the Trento municipal planning and development office in 1997.

"Engineer Solis is okay, but there is still a problem with his father that we must resolve. I am not meddling in other people’s private affairs, especially since this case involves a family, but I am worried for the welfare of the children who are affected by this abuse," Cañas said.

Cañas said she will also ask the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the provincial government of Agusan del Sur to build a center where child abuse victims will be housed, protected and given the proper legal and emotional assistance.

Agusan del Sur board member Santiago Cane said he will look into the Talbo girls’ plight and see how the provincial government can rescue child victims of sexual abuse and help them recover from their traumas. - With Charlie Lagasca