Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Seares: Chop-chop By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
CHOP-CHOP” is slang for “quickly,” not for what most of us take the word to mean: body cut to pieces.
To Filipinos, chop-chop originally referred to vehicles smuggled into the country as body parts before they were assembled and sold as complete units.
Smugglers, bolder and more efficient, now bring in the entire cars at regular or free ports right under the noses of customs people.
The word also applies to butchering of a person, word usage that still has to land in Encyclopedia of Crime.
Last Thursday, Richard Gudelosao, 27, and two accomplices killed and cut up Ma. Eva Mae Peligro, 24, fiancee of his brother, and her cousin Gwendolyn Balasta, 22, in their Talisay City home.
There was motive in the murder but what prompted them to chop the victims?
Reasons
Encyclopedia of Crime says there are four good reasons: (1) to complicate identification, (2) to make it easier to move and dispose of body parts, (3) to avenge a wrong when mere killing won’t punish severely enough, and (4) sexual gratification for the criminals.
All but the last-listed reason are present in the Talisay City “chop-chop” case.
There was thirst for revenge in dismembering the two women. And stuffing the parts into 13 garbage bags enabled the perps to dump them in several mountain areas far from the murder scene. If not for a lead, police wouldn’t have quickly identified the beheaded victims.
Chopping car bodies is painless and convenient for smugglers but cheats the government of precious revenue.
Chopping human bodies is bloody to the murderers, messy to the police crime scene unit, and simply appalling to the rest of us.
