A SECURITY guard couldn’t accept that his lover had left him to go back to her husband.
So he went to the couple’s home inside the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) compound in Barangay Guizo, Mandaue City on Monday morning, Sept. 26, 2022, and shot both of them dead.
Celso Morales Lauro, alias Jared Ebañez, a 26-year-old resident of Barangay Maslog, Danao City, Cebu, was arrested soon after the incident.
His victims were identified as Maria Chona Oro, 39, and Romeo Oro Jr., 38.
According to Maj. Lea Rey Endozo, chief of the Mandaue City Police Station 1, it was a crime of passion, but they will check for other possible motives.
Lauro, in an interview, said that when he arrived at the CICC compound, he inquired where the Oros lived. Once he found them, he shot them without hesitation.
He then fled and hopped on a bus. However, a police officer who was in the area flagged the bus and placed Lauro under arrest.
His firearm and three empty shells were recovered at the shooting scene.
Endozo said they will look into Lauro’s background to check if he had been involved in other crimes.
Abigail (not her real name), the victims’ neighbor, said she saw the suspect walking in the neighborhood shortly after 7 a.m. She said he stopped to ask her where the Oros lived.
She pointed out their house to him.
She said the suspect was wearing a face mask and appeared to be very calm.
“I even told my child to take him there,” she said in Cebuano, “but he turned down my offer.”
Abigail said the suspect walked towards the Oros’ house and pulled out a gun. When he saw them, he started shooting at them, she said.
She said he ran only to return moments later to look at the sprawled bodies of the victims before heading for the gate.
Abigail said the whole neighborhood knew about Maria Chona’s affair, but she was shocked to find out that the man who killed the husband and wife was Maria Chona’s lover.
Junrey Otero, Maria Chona’s brother, told Superbalita Cebu that Romeo had long known about Maria Chona’s indiscretion.
The Oros’ 12-year-old daughter told police that before she left for school that morning, her father told her the whole family was going away as soon as she got back.
She said her two younger siblings aged four and three were with her parents during the incident.
In an interview with reporters, Lauro said he and Maria Chona had been living together since February 2022.
He said he knew Maria Chona, who worked as an agent for a telecommunications company in Mandaue City, had a husband and three children.
He said she would often see him every morning and go back to her family at night.
He said he became furious when Maria Chona left their house on Sunday, Sept. 25, without asking his permission.
He explained that Maria Chona borrowed P50,000 in cash from him, but paid back only P30,000.
He also confessed that he was involved in a murder case, which explained why he has two names, adding that Maria Chona knew about his past.
When asked if he regretted committing the crime, Lauro said it was too late to apologize.
“It’s difficult to say sorry for something that has already been done. Maybe if they had survived. Even then, do you think they’d forgive me if I apologized?” he said in Cebuano.
Lauro is detained at the Mandaue Police Station 1 in Barangay Centro.
He will be charged with murder.
As for the Oros’ orphaned children, they are staying with relatives.