SPEAKING to reporters, Renato Cabradilla’s skinny frame stood out.

“Dili ko moinom. Dili ko magdrugs. Wala gyud koy bisyo. Pero mura ko og adik-adik tan-awon (I don’t drink. I don’t do drugs. I don’t have any vice. But I look like an addict),” he said as his voice cracked from being emotional.

The 30-year-old street caroler, smeared with mud from hiding inside a tunnel, blamed his mysterious illness for his appearance.

Depression

He also blamed it for his depression that made him kill his cousin and two friends in Barangay Buot, Cebu City.

“Wa nako kasabot. Mura ko gikan nikatkat og pito ka bungtod. Ing-ana kasakit akong lawas (I don’t understand. I feel like I climbed seven mountains. That’s how much my body aches),” he said.

His live-in partner Carina Dahuya, 28, told reporters his illness started last October, when Cabradilla and his friend Jeffrey Cabucayan, 23, went to Barangay Maslog in Danao City.

They were caroling in the area, which was celebrating its fiesta. They were given a pack of rice and chicken by a resident. They got sick after eating it.

Rumors also started circulating in their neighborhood that Cabradilla’s cousin Gerardo Tangayan had him cursed over a land dispute.

“Gipadautan kuno siya,” Dahuya said.

Quack doctors

Cabridalla went to different quack doctors and was told he was a victim of black magic. He wanted to get checked at a hospital, but he didn’t have the money.

Last Thursday, he went to another quack doctor in Olango Island.

He returned home last Monday afternoon and was reportedly disappointed at his children for not helping their mother who had just given birth last month.

“If they were good children, I wouldn’t have done what I did,” Cabradilla said in Cebuano.

He went to the Cabucayan’s house and invited Jeffrey and his brother Jerome, 19, to go with him. He admitted shooting the siblings.

“Bati kaayo di sila mamatay nga kami ramang kuyuga (It wouldn’t have been fair if they didn’t die considering we were together),” Cabadrilla said.

Dahuya, in a separate interivew, said Cabradilla blamed Jeffrey for his illness.

“He (Jeffrey) was the one who accepted the food that got me sick,” she said in Cebuano.

Cabradilla said it won’t matter if he goes to prison.

“I don’t think I will live longer than a year. There’s only one thing I’m asking, I don’t care if I’m poor, as long as I’m in good health,” he said in Cebuano.