by Meriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City-‘The gruesome massacre of a mother and her two children last month at Barangay Pupua in Catbalogan City turned into its most barbaric state when the husband/father himself finally admitted that he was the one who murdered his wife and their minor children on August 30 evening.
While police investigation was underway to identify and arrest the suspect, tricycle driver Edito Candiz, husband and father of the victims, the other day went to the police to own up the multiple murder.
Candiz, who is now detained, said he stabbed his common law wife, 26-year-old Rhea and then their two children, aged 5 months old and 3 years old.
At about 7 p.m. that day, he rushed to the police to report the incident, saying that upon arriving home from work he found the dead and bloodied bodies of his wife and their children at the front yard of their house.
After Edito reported the gruesome massacre and asked for help, the police quickly responded to the crime scene. The provincial police director immediately ordered a thorough investigation on the case, leading to the identification and arrest of the killer.
For weeks, investigations led to a blank wall although there were yet unfounded hints that Edito may have something to do with the massacre, with the investigators making him a person of interest. It was so until last Thursday when Edito opened up to the authorities, admitted and surrendered that he was the killer after all.
In addition to the gruesome massacre, Edito also admitted another murder he committed in the past, resulting in the solution of two crimes done by one person.
He bared that, in a 2021 unsolved murder case, he was the one who killed Rhea’s father who he thought at the time was trying to kill him.
In the recent killing of his wife, he insisted to the media that he did it out of jealousy to his partner who he suspected of having an affair with another, even having a love child with them.
He said that after he stabbed Rhea many times, his senses went wild but later realized that he also stabbed their two children who he said he did not intend to kill.
He said that, upon awakening from his demonic spell, he rushed to the nearby river, took a dip, then went to the police station to report the massacre of his family purportedly by some perpetrators. He however did not last standing-up to the story of lies and deceit, admitting finally that he was the murderer. —Meriam G. Desacada