ILOILO City – The 28-year-old woman accused of killing her 7-month-old child in Barangay California, Barotac Viejo, Iloilo will be released Monday if no charges are filed against her, police told Panay News.
Police arrested the woman last Friday and have only until today – when the 36-hour reglementary period lapses – to keep her in custody.
Investigators were inclined to believe the suspect “had a nervous breakdown” at the time. Her husband was planning to get her mental condition checked, said Chief Inspector Joven Arevalo, Barotac Viejo municipal police chief.
The gruesome crime happened at around 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 7 – the mother allegedly slashed the neck of the male infant using a trowel and a pair of scissors, Arevalo told this paper in a phone interview.
Her husband was picking vegetables just a few meters from their house when one of their children told him the mother was looking for a bolo, the police station chief said, citing investigation.
The husband rushed home and found his bloodied 7-month-old child on their kitchen sink and his similarly bloodied wife nearby, said Arevalo.
The Barotac Viejo police station sent investigators to the village after learning about the incident from the barangay captain. Police refused to identify the woman and her immediately family.
“Gin-atake ni sia siguro sang nervous breakdown,” Arevalo said of the suspect.
A parricide charge could be filed against the mother but she could be spared from any criminal liability if none from her family files a case against her, said the officer.
“The husband does not intend to file any case,” Arevalo told Panay News. “He wants to get her medically treated instead.”
“Anyone from the family could file the case,” the officer noted, “but from what we have gathered from the relatives, no filing of charges will happen.”
According to Arevalo, they advised the husband to take the wife to the medical facility where they want to get her checked after her release and not to bring her home yet.
The woman was “unstable,” said the police officer. “The way she speaks would change from time to time. Sometimes she would scream, and then she would cry, and then laugh.”
Arevalo said the woman and her husband had three children while she had two children with a previous partner./PN
