The Philippines is a bloody nation. Bloody drug war. Bloody motorcycle assassins. Bloody chop-chop murders. Chop-chop murders? Yes that is what a murder/dismemberment case is called in the Philippines. One wonders why victims of motorcycle assassins aren't called bang-bang murders but, never mind. Despite the childish name chop-chop murders are nothing new nor are they rare. These cases, when they do occur, are always striking and bizarrely horrific.
In the annals of Philippine crimes, the list of cases of women murdered and their bodies chopped up into pieces and eviscerated is expanding. Since 1967, when the famous Lucila Lalu case hogged the headlines, close to a dozen similar incidents have already been recorded in blotters, nearly all of them post-millennial and most of these classified as a ‘crime of passion.’
https://edgedavao.net/vantage-points/2019/05/12/fast-backward-the-chop-chop-women-of-davao/
Are most of these chop-chop murders crimes of passion involving women? Let's take a look at chop-chop murders in the Philippines.
By all accounts the first recorded chop-chop murder victim is Lucila Tolentino Lalu in 1967.
On May 28, police officers found human body parts: a woman’s pair of legs, cleanly cut in four pieces, wrapped with a newspaper dated May 14th. The legs were found in a garbage can along Malabon St. not far from Pagoda. The garbage collector who found the parts said that they were cold to the touch, as if they had come from the freezer. He also noted that the toes were well-pedicured, like they belonged to someone well-to-do.
At first, police officers and the media thought they may match the badly decomposed, severed hand that had been found just a few days earlier in front of a barber shop along Recto Avenue. However, this theory was discarded after checking the decomposition rates on both body parts.
https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/lifestyle/chop-chop-ladies-a1729-20180830-lfrm4
That last paragraph would seem to belie any assertion that Lucila was the first chop-chop victim. Who did the severed hand belong to?
Homicide investigators noted that whoever killed Lucila was someone skilled with the knife, or have some sort of medical knowledge since the parts were expertly cut. In initial reports, they also mentioned that, since the body parts were frozen and scattered in different parts of the city, they were looking for someone with an access to a huge freezer and an automobile.
That sounds like a Pinoy Jack the Ripper. Eventually the police focused on one suspect, Jose Luis Santiano, a dentistry student.
The last suspect was someone who came forward due to his “guilty conscience”: a 28-year-old dentistry student, Jose Luis Santiano. It was June 15, 1967 when news broke out that a “handsome young man” son of a retired PC colonel, married and father of five, confessed in his own handwritten statement that he experienced a “mental blackout” but remember strangling Lucila to her death. Jose Luis was also one of Lucila’s lovers and was one of the boarders of the spare rooms in her parlor.
Three days later, Jose Luis was singing a different tune. He retracted his earlier statement, saying he wasn’t the murderer but just an “unwilling witness” to the murder which was in fact committed by three men. While the murder did happen in the mezzanine of the parlor where Jose Luis’ room was, he said that two men killed Lucila while another man held him hostage while pointing a gun at him. A fourth man appeared the following morning and planted evidence, the blood, in his room. Over the next few days, he allegedly also received notes, reminding him to keep silent.
The police insisted that Jose Luis did it, especially since they found a hammer with bloodstains in the mezzanine, as well as the knife and razors in his initial testimony. They claimed that he was merely following his lawyer’s suggestion of retracting his statement. When Jose Luis was being held by the NBI, they also received bomb threats to let the murder suspect go. He was released later on and some even say that Jose Luis is still alive and living abroad.
With no one charged the case remains open and speculation as to the identity of the killer has veered into unexpected directions.
Without any new leads, the investigators reached a dead end. The public, on the other hand, continued to speculate on the mystery. In 2003, a former Los Angeles police detective named Steve Hodel published a book Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story, about a similar case that took place in the US in 1947. In the book, Hodel details his 15-year investigation after his father's death into the Black Dahlia murderer, whom he suspected to be his father, Dr. George Hill Hodel.
During his investigation, Steve Hodel found out that his father had been in Manila in the ‘60s, leading the younger Hodel believe that George was also behind Lucila's murder. There were some inaccuracies in his book, however: that Lucila’s torso was found along Zodiac Street in Makati, when news reports stated it was found along EDSA, near Guadalupe. Some followers of the mystery accept this explanation for Lucila’s murder, but the case officially remains open.
An interesting connection linking a murder in the Philippines to the infamous and unsolved Black Dhalia murder.
George Hodel lived in the Philippines for 40 years from 1950 - 1990. If he was the killer of Lucia Lalu perhaps he killed more women. At any rate this man, who was also accused of being the Zodiac Killer, married and divorced future Congresswoman
Hortensia Starke and
became a successful businessman in Manila. This would not be the last chop-chop murder in the Philippines.
Next comes the murder of Lesa Castillo in 1993. Understandably it is a long stretch between 1967 and 1993. Were there any chop-chop murders in that timeframe of 26 years? It would seem not.
Like many a murdered lady Lesa was involved in a torrid love affair and paid the price with her life. Her killer, Stephen Wisehunt, is an American from San Fransisco. Remarkably while being sentenced to reclusion perpetua (perpetual reclusion i.e. life in prison) he only served 19 years before he was freed and deported.
Whisenhunt’s lawyers have long sought his release from detention, citing alleged errors committed by the Board of Pardons and Parole in computing the exact time he served in prison.
The law allows prisoners sentenced to reclusion perpetua to be eligible for commutation of sentence and their release from detention is computed using a formula called good conduct time allowance
Next on the list of chop-chop ladies are Eva Mae Peligro and Gwendolyn Balasta. These two young ladies were viciously murdered on July 24th, 2008 in Talisay City, Cebu. This was not a crime of passion. This was a planned murder and the reason is pretty stupid. Richard Gudelosao was the murderer and his brother was engaged to his victim.
Richard narrated that it was Mae who always told his mother about what he was doing and he often got scolded because of this. He also felt slighted because of an incident where Mae’s cousin hurt his daughter but he had to apologize for it.
Richard, his live-in partner Jean Antonette Medalla and their four-year-old daughter occupied the second floor while Mae and her helper Gwendolyn Balaste occupied a room in the first floor.
He admitted planning the killing with his friend and neighbor Jojo delos Reyes two weeks before.
He said that before the actual killing on Thursday afternoon, there were two previous attempts last Wednesday.
At dawn of Wednesday, he was ready to push the key to Mae’s room to open it but they decided against it in case she would try to fight back.
That night, after reportedly smoking marijuana cigarettes, they waited until Mae went out of her room to use the bathroom. But because delos Reyes fell asleep, Richard said they did not push through with it.
But at 3 p.m. Thursday, as Mae was online in her room with music blaring, Richard disconnected the modem to make Mae come out to check what was wrong with her Internet connection.
As soon as she came out, Richard claimed delos Reyes clamped her neck between his arms. However, delos Reyes said it was Richard who first attacked Mae.
“Jesus, help me!,” were reportedly Mae’s last words.
“Nasuko pa ko niya pero naluoy na gani ko. Di na unta nako ipadayon pero kamatyonon na man siya (Even in my anger, I felt sorry for her. I wanted to call it off, but she was already dying),” Richard said.
They went on and beat her up to weaken her.
When she stopped moving, they took her to an empty bedroom on the second floor. Since she was still breathing, they covered her mouth and nose with packaging tape.
Minutes later, Balasta emerged from their room looking for Mae. She noticed that Mae’s slippers were outside the door to the bathroom and thought that she merely went out to use it.
But when Mae did not come out, Balasta knocked on the door, only to find that the bathroom was empty.
“Luoy man ang katabang. Dili na unta ko ganahan iapil pero gusto man sad gud mi nga limpyo ang trabaho (We didn’t want to hurt the maid, but we also wanted to leave no trace of what we had done),” Richard explained.
When Balasta kept looking for Mae, Richard said he also went for her and strangled her.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100119062635/http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2008/07/27/news/a.brother.s.revenge.html
He killed Mae because she kept tattling on him to his mother who was an OFW and she would in turn chew him out over the phone. He killed the helper to dispose of any witnesses. The ladies were chopped up and placed in 13 garbage bags which were dumped at various locations. He received a
sentence of 80 years.
In July 2010
Rubie Jane Abalde was raped and cut in two pieces in a fit of jealousy.
Jealousy may have driven a farmer to rape and hack a woman into two pieces in Pagalungan, Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday.
Reynante Luminda, who was killed in a shoot out with arresting officers, reportedly killed 20-year-old Rubie Jane Abalde, whose chopped up body was found on the fields of Sitio Inayao in this city on Friday.
Luminda allegedly confessed to killing Abalde to his live-in partner, Violeta Abrangan.
Abrangan said Luminda believed she was having an affair with the victim's father.
Abalde was found on Friday after a massive search. Her naked body was hacked at the waist and cut into two.
2010 also saw the chop-chop murder of 39 year old
Maritess Hao.
The victim, 39-year-old Maritess Hao, was hit on the head before her body was carved up, according to investigators.
The attacker decapitated Hao, cut off her legs, and sliced her breasts, police said.
This was another crime of passion. The killer, Hao's boyfriend Arvin Casanova, was found guilty and sentenced to 19 years in prison. However his original charges were reduced from murder to homicide because he crime was committed without treachery.
Casanova was charged with murder last January 2011, but Tanjili reduced the case to homicide since he found no concrete evidence that the crime was committed with treachery.
Tanjili, in his eight-page decision, said: "The court can't presume a conclusion that there was treachery as it should be proven clearly and indubitably."
The accused, in his affidavit, claimed that Hao tried to stab him with a kitchen knife and he tried to defend himself. He then repeatedly banged the head of Hao against the floor in an attempt to subdue her.
Casanova said he had no intention of killing Hao, yet Tanjili did not reduce the sentence. Hao was found dead in her house on Christmas Day of 2010. Her dismembered body parts were found in a plastic bag inside the restroom of her house at Solariega Subdivision.
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/302098/Man-gets-19-year-jail-term-for-killing-GF
Even if she was killed in an act of self-defence that does not explain the dismemberment of her corpse. Casanova did not even attempt to dispose of the body. He simply chopped it up and placed it in a plastic bag in the bathroom.
On April 11 2011 in Laguna Camille Ann Mamaclay, a guest relations officer at a local bar, disappeared only to be found chopped up.
Camille was a guest relations officer in Laguna. Describe by her friends and family as genuinely a good person, Camille was the person to run to when anyone had a problem. In fact she was too nice that even her club Korean customers easily fell in love with her. One day, Camille disappeared and only to be found days later with her body parts severed.
No one was ever charged and the case remains unsolved.
A street sweeper found a bag of body parts near the Senate building in June 2016.
A sack filled with human body parts was discovered in front of the Senate building in Pasay City Wednesday morning.
Vendor Miniano Samarra was sweeping the streets when he noticed a white sack beside the center island past 5 a.m.
Samarra opened the sack and was shocked to find chopped up arms and legs.
Responding policemen suspect that the victim was killed in a different area and the body parts were only dumped there.
Police, however, are having a difficulty identifying the victim since the other body parts were missing.
Authorities are also not discounting the possibility that the arms and legs they recovered were from different individuals.
Here is a photo of the sack in question:
There are no updates on this case available and it likely remains unsolved.
In 2017 Mitzi Joy Balunsay was chopped up by er ex-boyfriend because she broke up with him.
On Sat morning, Jan 7, Balunsay’s dismembered remains were found inside a box left along the road in Barangay (Village) Deocampo in Trece Martires, Cavite.
After the investigation, authorities found 20-year-old De Los Angeles — Balunsay’s theater groupmate — as the suspect. He claims to be the victim’s former lover.
He said he borrowed the keys to a friend’s apartment, so he was able to execute his plan. He admitted he strangled and killed Balunsay before raping her.
(She doesn’t want to get back together with me, so I dismembered her body. I didn’t know where to put it.)
Heidi Estera was brutally murdered and eaten by her husband in March 2018.
The sixteen-year marriage of a couple in Quezon City ended up tragic after the husband killed and mutilated his wife in an apparent “crime of passion.”
Chief Supt. Guillermo Eleazar, QCPD director, told reporters in a press conference that the victim was asking her husband for a massage when Orlando suddenly saw his wife as an animal and strangled her.
Eleazar said the suspect opened his wife’s belly using a 30-centimeter-long kitchen knife, to check if there is a fetus, then chopped her neck, and mutilated her breasts, arms and legs.
Meanwhile, Orlando, who was presented today at the QCPD headquarters in Camp Karingal, narrated how he “slaughtered” his wife, whom he saw as Satan.
According to Orlando, he just came out from their comfort room when he saw his wife lying face down.
“I realized that the person I am living with is Satan. So, I checked who is that person under the mask,” Orlando told reporters.
He said he stepped on his wife’s neck, chopped it off, pierced her eyes, and started peeling the skin of her face to see “who was hiding under the mask.”
The suspect also stepped on the victim’s womb and cut it to check if there is a fetus inside. It appears that the two do not have any children.
Barangay officials said Hiede has myoma which police have yet to be checked pending autopsy results.
Orlando also said he chopped his wife’s head and sucked her brain “so she cannot harm other people.”
When the authorities arrived, they chanced upon Orlando inside the house who still has flesh all over his face.
Orlando said he killed his wife “to save us from the wrath of the devil,” and said he do not regret killing her.
He also told reporters that he now feels free that the “devil” is gone.
Tragic and very gruesome.
On March 29, 2019 the body of Lindsey Avelino was found chopped up and stuffed in various spots.
The body parts of Lindsey Avelino, 28, a sales agent, were found in a washing machine, a trolley bag and the toilet of an apartment on Monday, Chief Superintendent Joel Napoloen Coronel, Central Luzon police director, said.
Police said a 9mm pistol and the victim’s head, arms, a leg and feet were found stuffed in the trolley bag.
The neighbors of the couple said they saw Avelino’s partner Eduardo Pasion, 40, hurriedly leaving their apartment carrying the trolley bag.
Pasion reportedly resisted arrest and shot it out with police officers who conducted a follow-up operation at his workplace in Barangay Pampang at around 7 p.m.
Her murder is only the latest in a long line of chop-chop murders but we can all rest assured it is not the last. There will be more. From the above though it would seem that any future victims will all be female and their killers either current or former lovers.
