A FEMALE mango vendor is in critical condition after her neck was slashed by her live-in partner.
The gruesome attack, which took place across the Luym Building on Plaridel Street in downtown Cebu City at 2:10 p.m. on Monday, January 30, 2023, was caught on the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in the area.
The victim was identified as 54-year-old Bernadeta Zamora, a widow who resides in Barangay Sapangdaku, Cebu City.
Operatives of the Guadalupe Police Station arrested suspect Edwin Salazar in a follow-up operation.
Salazar, in a radio dyHP interview, admitted that jealousy drove him to commit the act, saying he caught Zamora talking to a man who constantly winked at her last January 15.
He said he was in the back and it was clear that the two were conversing using signs.
He said he first suspected that something was up when Zamora wouldn’t let him accompany her while she sold mangoes and blamed his appearance.
He described the guy who had an eye for his live-in partner as short and dirty-looking, but the latter had made an effort to look good that day.
Since then, he said, Zamora would always get mad at him and accuse him of taking money. She also stopped going home to their hut in Barangay Sapangdaku despite his many pleas that they talk things over, he said.
Salazar also admitted that he would get jealous whenever a man talked to Zamora, which was why he warned her not look at other men, especially if they happened to have a good physique.
“Maniid man gud ko sa mga lihok niya. Ako siya giingnan nga ayaw tutok-tutok anang mga laki labi nag macho, mga gwapo. Ayaw ana. Ayaw’g tutok-tutok kay ngil-ad man paminawon,” he said.
(I had been watching her closely. I told her not to stare at men who were macho and good-looking. I said it was unbecoming of a woman like her.)
When he couldn’t stand it anymore, he said he wanted to shake her up a bit.
He said he initially only wanted to give her a nick on the neck using the knife to peel mangoes, but she grabbed the knife. As a result, he ended up slicing her neck, he said.
Despite what happened, Salazar said he still loves Zamora and he is sorry for what he did.
The Waterfront Police Station will file a complaint for frustrated murder against the suspect before the fiscal’s office on Wednesday, February 1.
The case is in relation to Republic Act 9262, or the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act of 2004, since the two aren’t married.
According to Cebu City Police Office Director Colonel Ireneo Dalogdog, if Zamora dies, Salazar will be charged with murder.
The police official said the victim needs to undergo a surgery on her neck.
The CCTV footage that has gone viral on social media shows Salazar slicing the neck of Zamora, who was immediately attended to by passersby.
Dalogdog praised one female student, who, based on her uniform, was taking up nursing. He said she never left the victim’s side and even applied pressure on the wound to stop the blood from escaping until Zamora was taken to the hospital.
Dalogdog said he wants to honor the student for her heroic act. (AYB, PJB)