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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Killers swapped messages with wife of Marine
CEBU CITY -- After her husband Marine Private First Class Reuben S. Doronio Jr. was killed in an ambush in Basilan last July 10, Jomarie Doronio received several text messages from her husband’s killers.
One of them asked if he could befriend her. The others inquired about her well-being.
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Either way, she could only feel disgust at their attempt to add insult to injury.
The communication began on the day her husband was killed, Jomarie said.
“Pasensya ka na. Nabalitaan naming napatay na ang mister nyo (We’re sorry. We heard that your husband has been killed),” was the text message she received from her husband’s cellular phone number.
She and her sister-in-law Honeylee called the number but nobody answered.
The next day, the military camp in Basilan confirmed that Reuben was among the 14 Marines killed in the encounter with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels. They had been scouring the jungles for the kidnapped Italian priest, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi when they were attacked.
Ten of them were beheaded, including her husband, while some of the soldiers had their genitals cut off.
The mutilations sparked outrage across the country.
The two women called the acts “bastos” (barbaric).
Honeylee said the rebels again sent 10 more text messages to Jomarie, still using her brother’s number.
One of them was, “Puwede ba makigpag-kaibigan (Can we be friends)?”
Honeylee said the sender might have fallen for Jomarie after he saw her picture on her husband’s phone.
“Naibog gyud na nimo (He must like you),” Honeylee told Jomarie.
The messages only stopped when Honeylee told them, through text message, “One day, you will also suffer the pain we have at present.”
The two, united in grief, vowed never to forgive Reuben’s killers.
The rest of the family is also seeking justice for his death.
His father Doronio Sr. described him as a brave and compassionate person.
“It was unfortunate that he died young,” was the sentiment shared by the victim’s brothers and other relatives.
Reuben’s body lies in state at the Cebu Rolling Hills Memorial Chapels in Banilad, Cebu City.
He will be buried on Saturday.
Doronio Sr. told Sun.Star Cebu that despite the pain they are feeling right now, he is appealing to the Muslim rebels responsible for their deaths to free Fr. Bossi and return to the fold of the law.
Reuben graduated with a degree in science and education at the Cebu State College of Science and Technology at the age of 19.
He might have chosen the field of education because of his mother, who is a Department of Education supervisor in their hometown of Borbon, said his father.
But instead of practicing his profession, he joined the Marines at the age of 20, so he could serve his country.
Reuben turned 25 last February 10.
He married Jomarie on May 25, 2006. The couple has a five-month-old son Lexben Gabriel who was born last February 12.
Doronio Sr. said his son flew to Manila last week to visit a friend who was in the hospital.
He suddenly showed up in Borbon to visit his family, but he did not stay long.
According to his father, Reuben asked him to buy a plane ticket for his trip to the Basilan military camp so he could join his group in the search for the missing priest.
“The last thing I can remember (of him) is that he smiled while bidding goodbye to us,” Doronio Sr. said. (EOB/Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (July 17, 2007 issue)
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