CLOSE friends and fellow organization members of Michael and Fraldine Kate Ramayla Canes expressed dismay over the public and the media for being to quick to judge the couple.
The couple was gunned down by two unidentified men on a motorcycle on A.C. Cortes Avenue, corner S.B. Cabahug St., in Barangay Ibabao past 11 pm last Sunday, April 14.
Their five-year-old daughter, who was with the couple at that time, was the lone survivor of the shooting.
“This couple is not what social media has given them the image of,” Guilliam Roque, spokesperson of Honda Beat Sugbu (HBS), told SunStar Cebu.
HBS is a Cebu-based social organization since 2016 composed of Honda Beat unit owners, to which Michael was a pioneering member while her wife serves as treasurer.
Roque said their group was hurt by the public’s reaction on social media after the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) said that the couple were part of their drug watchlist.
“We request the public and those who are on social media to not only believe on a single angle. The articles on the internet were pretty much one-sided,” he said.
Roque said their group witnessed how the couple worked hard for their Ready-To-Wear (RTW) business.
He also denied allegation that the couple were using their RTW business as a cover for illegal activities.
Roque recalled a time when the couple decided to sell their Honda Beat unit just to acquire additional capital for their growing business.
“For me, personally, what happened was a robbery.
The couple man gud, they are very transparent in social media, bisa’g personal life. Pwedeng nakasuyaan ug dugay nang naplanuhan because Kate was into posting their business sales online,” he said.
When asked if the couple had received any death threats before the incident, Roque said they never received any.
Roque said he and his group expressed willingness to cooperate should the investigators tap them for help in solving the case.
“They are already dead. They left a daughter and they left families and relatives. I don’t think it matters to make them look like they are the bad guys, but to look for those responsible for their deaths," he added, in Cebuano.