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Saturday, August 05, 2006
Family identifies slain woman
By Jeanette P. Malinao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
News reports identified her only as “Tisay, a suspected drug addict in her late twenties.” An assassin had shot her twice, once in the head and another in the shoulder, then left her sprawled beside the street in Duljo Fatima, Cebu City.
Her name was Lady Lyn Concepcion Serna. She was a single mother of two sons, aged six and two. She was only 22.
Her mother died shortly after she was born. Her father remarried, a union that did not last and only left all of them scarred.
Abuse
“Lady Lyn’s mother opted to die than kill the baby in her womb by not taking medications for her kidneys, which caused her death less than four months after she gave birth to Lady Lyn,” said Luzvisminda, who is now taking care of Lady Lyn’s children.
She was a pretty child, but hers was not a normal childhood. She fell victim to a series of physical, verbal and sexual assaults when she was five to seven years old, allegedly from her stepmother’s family.
Lady Lyn, her father and sister sought shelter with a religious group in Pardo, Cebu City.
They were not relatives but considered each one a family of distraught individuals seeking refuge, strength and meaning through prayer.
But she constantly yearned for the love, stability and sense of belongingness that only a real family can give. In the end, she was broken twice by relationships she had thought were hers to have, leaving her with two children to take care of.
Yet, she fought for life. At nights, she dreamed of the mother she did not know. By day, she dreamed of getting money to give her father and children a home of their own.
Today, Lady Lyn will be buried along with her dreams.
Among her belongings, her family found a notebook in which she scribbled, “Don’t turn to drugs or drinks as a means of mending brokenness but rather turn to God whose healing is perfect, whose love is unconditional. Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die tomorrow.”
Heaven’s justice
Some say a drug lord had her killed for not remitting shabu proceeds. Others say she was mistaken for a police asset. Perhaps her family will never know.
“Ginuo na la’y bahala (We will leave it up to God), for no one can escape heaven’s justice,” said April, Lady Lyn’s elder sister.
“It’s a moment of anger and grief yet in all this I see the hand of God calling Lyn home to where she will no longer search for love, the thing she found elusive that made her a wanderlust. May she rest in His embrace,” said Lyn’s father, Lito.
With no one on earth seeking justice for her death, her case will likely be among the unsolved killings that have found their way into the Cebu City Police Office’s archives.
Meanwhile, Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Silverio Alarcio Jr. plans to visit Cebu Archdiocese Media Liaison Officer Msgr. Achilles Dakay to gather information he has about the vigilante killings.
In an interview over radio dyRF yesterday morning, Alarcio said he wants to get the information that Dakay has so they can move in their investigation.
‘Trained, paid’
Dakay earlier said the vigilantes in Cebu City are “trained and paid.”
Cebu City Police Office Director Melvin Gayotin had invited Dakay to visit his office to shed light on the investigation.
Alarcio plans to find time within the week. This was his way of reaching out to Dakay in hopes of getting more information.
“We’re not sleeping on it. We are working on it. But we’re waiting for a break. Something that would lead us to the perpetrators,” Alarcio said.
He also plans to discuss with higher headquarters a reward system for information on those behind the vigilante killings.
This was after the Philippine National Police offered monetary rewards for any information leading to the capture of gunmen responsible for a spate of killings targeting journalists and activists.
President Arroyo has given law enforcers 10 weeks to solve extrajudicial killings in the country, which has alarmed human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
Vigilante killings in Cebu City have reached 167 since December 2004. (With MEA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 4, 2006 issue)
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