What a Fucked Up World
Husband surrenders, denies beating wife to death
By JAIME ESPINA
TODAY Reporter
BACOLOD CITY - Accused wife killer Rodolfo Porras surrendered on Thursday but vehemently denied he had murdered his wife, Vilma, or subjected her and their children to years of beating and abuse.
Porras of hacienda San Luis, barangay Purisima, Manapla, first turned himself in to a reporter-friend of Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod Wednesday and was formally turned over by the station to Chief Insp. Moises Villaceran of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) here before noon Thursday.
Porras has been charged with parricide and a warrant of arrest, with no bail recommended, has been issued against him. Villaceran said he would present Porras before the courts today.
According to his son Raffy, 9, the youngest of four children, Porras came home drunk on the evening of July 16, beat up his wife, already blind and partially paralyzed, allegedly from previous beatings, with a hammer, threw hot water and pressed an iron on her, drove nails through her mouth, hands and knees and finally strangled her.
Raffy said the killing took place before him and his sister, Christine Joy, 12.
The results of the autopsy conducted on Vilma by Manapla health officer Edbert Jayme tended to confirm most of Raffy’s accounts of his mother’s injuries, although Jayme confirmed only one puncture wound through the chin and lower lip. He gave the cause of Vilma’s death as asphyxia through strangulation, most probably by having a hard object, such as a piece of wood, pressed against her neck.
Raffy said his father woke up around 3 a.m., prepared lugaw (rice porridge) and coffee and tried to feed Vilma. However, seeing she was dead, he left.
Porras, however, denied everything, saying he sought help when his wife began choking as he fed her the porridge. He claimed, “She had no marks on her when I left home.”
When asked to explain how she came by her cruel wounds, Porras claimed she could have fallen or that “someone may have broken in” when he went for help from an elder sister and a village councilman, supposedly to take her to a hospital. He could not, however, explain why his own son insisted he committed the crime.
However, his sister, Thelma, said Rodolfo told her his wife had died. So, too, did councilman Narciso Mendoza Jr.
Porras admitted fleeing on Saturday morning on learning policemen were at his house because “I was afraid I would be tortured or beaten up.” In his panic, he said he went to Iloilo City and Roxas, Capiz, on Saturday to seek out the advise of friends and acquaintances.
He said he returned here on Wednesday morning, walking around downtown Bacolod, before seeking advice from a friend in Silay City, and then left for Cadiz City, where he knew no one.
It was there, he said, that he decided to call up Aksyon Radyo reporter Rex Cantong, godfather of his eldest daughter, Sarah Jane, 14, for help. After talking to Cantong, Porras decided to give up “so I can see my children again” and “give them a good future” after he clears his name.
The Porras siblings are now in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Iloilo City where they are being treated for trauma. Vilma’s body, on the other hand, has been returned to her native Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, for burial.
Porras said he could not understand “why I am being accused of things I have not done” or “why my children hate me so and say these things about me.” He also asked for the forgiveness of his wife’s family, not for killing her, but for failing to take her to a hospital in time to save her life.
Porras denied being a habitual abuser, who, according to his children, would beat his wife and children for the slightest reason, especially when drunk. He did, however, admit having ironed the soles of Vilma’s feet in 2002 in retaliation for her supposedly “humiliating me too much.”
He also denied causing his wife’s blindness and paralysis, claiming this happened when she got sick after giving birth to Raffy.
By JAIME ESPINA
TODAY Reporter
BACOLOD CITY - Accused wife killer Rodolfo Porras surrendered on Thursday but vehemently denied he had murdered his wife, Vilma, or subjected her and their children to years of beating and abuse.
Porras of hacienda San Luis, barangay Purisima, Manapla, first turned himself in to a reporter-friend of Aksyon Radyo-Bacolod Wednesday and was formally turned over by the station to Chief Insp. Moises Villaceran of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) here before noon Thursday.
Porras has been charged with parricide and a warrant of arrest, with no bail recommended, has been issued against him. Villaceran said he would present Porras before the courts today.
According to his son Raffy, 9, the youngest of four children, Porras came home drunk on the evening of July 16, beat up his wife, already blind and partially paralyzed, allegedly from previous beatings, with a hammer, threw hot water and pressed an iron on her, drove nails through her mouth, hands and knees and finally strangled her.
Raffy said the killing took place before him and his sister, Christine Joy, 12.
The results of the autopsy conducted on Vilma by Manapla health officer Edbert Jayme tended to confirm most of Raffy’s accounts of his mother’s injuries, although Jayme confirmed only one puncture wound through the chin and lower lip. He gave the cause of Vilma’s death as asphyxia through strangulation, most probably by having a hard object, such as a piece of wood, pressed against her neck.
Raffy said his father woke up around 3 a.m., prepared lugaw (rice porridge) and coffee and tried to feed Vilma. However, seeing she was dead, he left.
Porras, however, denied everything, saying he sought help when his wife began choking as he fed her the porridge. He claimed, “She had no marks on her when I left home.”
When asked to explain how she came by her cruel wounds, Porras claimed she could have fallen or that “someone may have broken in” when he went for help from an elder sister and a village councilman, supposedly to take her to a hospital. He could not, however, explain why his own son insisted he committed the crime.
However, his sister, Thelma, said Rodolfo told her his wife had died. So, too, did councilman Narciso Mendoza Jr.
Porras admitted fleeing on Saturday morning on learning policemen were at his house because “I was afraid I would be tortured or beaten up.” In his panic, he said he went to Iloilo City and Roxas, Capiz, on Saturday to seek out the advise of friends and acquaintances.
He said he returned here on Wednesday morning, walking around downtown Bacolod, before seeking advice from a friend in Silay City, and then left for Cadiz City, where he knew no one.
It was there, he said, that he decided to call up Aksyon Radyo reporter Rex Cantong, godfather of his eldest daughter, Sarah Jane, 14, for help. After talking to Cantong, Porras decided to give up “so I can see my children again” and “give them a good future” after he clears his name.
The Porras siblings are now in the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Iloilo City where they are being treated for trauma. Vilma’s body, on the other hand, has been returned to her native Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo, for burial.
Porras said he could not understand “why I am being accused of things I have not done” or “why my children hate me so and say these things about me.” He also asked for the forgiveness of his wife’s family, not for killing her, but for failing to take her to a hospital in time to save her life.
Porras denied being a habitual abuser, who, according to his children, would beat his wife and children for the slightest reason, especially when drunk. He did, however, admit having ironed the soles of Vilma’s feet in 2002 in retaliation for her supposedly “humiliating me too much.”
He also denied causing his wife’s blindness and paralysis, claiming this happened when she got sick after giving birth to Raffy.
posted by mai at 7:18 pm
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