On Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, a 22-year-old mother found her two-year-old son unresponsive and covered with a blanket in their rented room on Santan St., Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, before he was declared dead on arrival at Cebu City Medical Center.
Labangon Police arrested the victim's 37-year-old live-in partner, Lyle, at a house in Sitio Nazareth, Barangay Buhisan, at 9:30 p.m. that evening, and are preparing a murder complaint against him while awaiting formal autopsy results.
Police reported that bruises were found on the child's body and that the death certificate states the boy died due to subdural hemorrhage and blunt traumatic head injury, though the suspect denied beating the child or intentionally causing his death.
WHEN Tin (not her real name) came home from work around 3 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026, her two-year-old son from a previous relationship was covered with a blanket up to his neck. She thought he was asleep.
But the noise she made as she entered their rented room on Santan St. in Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, did not wake him, she said.
Tin, who works as an entertainer on Gen. Maxilom Ave., tried to rouse her son when she noticed he did not appear to be breathing. The boy did not respond.
The 22-year-old mother rushed him to Cebu City Medical Center, where he was declared dead on arrival.
A message left behind
The man Tin had left to care for her son. Police said Tin’s live-in partner, a 37-year-old identified only as Lyle, had sent her a message.
“Sorry kayo, babe. Love kaayo ta mo (I’m sorry, babe. I love you very much),’’ it said.
By that evening, police had arrested Lyle at a house in Sitio Nazareth, Barangay Buhisan, while investigators sought to establish what had happened to the boy before his mother returned.
Bruises were found on several parts of the child’s body, said Capt. Meryl Causin, officer-in-charge of the Labangon Police Station.
Police ordered an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death and document other injuries, and said they were preparing a murder complaint against Lyle, who denied beating the child or intentionally causing his death.
Earlier bruises
For Tin, the bruises were something she had seen before.
Lyle, she said, had explained earlier marks on her son’s body as the result of how he disciplined the boy and his habit of biting him.
“Naa na man koy makita bun-og sa akong anak pero sa iyaha, way of disciplining ra kuno. Iyang ingon about sa mga lagom sa bata kay sa iyang pinaakan ra kay manggigil siya (I had seen bruises on my son before, but he said it was his way of disciplining him. He said the bruises were from biting the child because he could not resist doing so),” Tin said.
Police said the couple had been in a relationship for about five months and had shared a home for two to three months.
On Tuesday night, Sept. 15, Tin had left her son in Lyle’s care while she went to work.
Suspect’s narrative
Lyle’s account began Tuesday, when he said the boy fell ill after they were caught in the rain.
The child had been vomiting and experiencing diarrhea, but Lyle said he opposed Tin’s suggestion to take him to a hospital because he thought the boy would recover.
When he woke at about 2 a.m. Wednesday, he said, the child’s mouth was frothing and filled with saliva and mucus.
Lyle described sucking mucus from the boy’s nose, repositioning him and pressing his abdomen, after which the child vomited phlegm.
As the boy struggled to breathe, Lyle said he pressed his chest and abdomen in what he described as an attempt at CPR.
About half an hour later, at roughly 2:30 a.m., the child began to stiffen, according to Lyle.
He said the boy stopped breathing and the color of his mouth changed. Lyle fled before Tin came home.
“I ran because I panicked when he was no longer breathing. I was scared because my partner was on her way home, and I could not face her. I could not tell her that her son had died,” he said in Cebuano.
He said he regretted refusing to take the boy to a hospital and feared that his attempts to revive him had contributed to his death.
Although he denied beating the child or deliberately causing his death, he acknowledged having bitten him and slapped him on the head before.
Searching for answers
Police were still gathering evidence to determine how the child sustained his injuries.
Causin cited information from the death certificate, which states that the boy died due to subdural hemorrhage and blunt traumatic head injury, but added that the autopsy would provide definitive findings.
Police said they could not yet confirm whether the boy had suffered any other form of abuse.
The incident was reported to the Labangon Police Station at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, several hours after Tin returned from work.
Officers from the station, the City Investigation and Detective Management Unit and the City Intelligence Unit conducted the follow-up operation under the supervision of Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare.
They later found Lyle in Buhisan and arrested him at 9:30 p.m.
He remained in the custody of the Labangon Police Station as investigators awaited the autopsy results and prepared the complaint.
Tin said she was still struggling to accept her son’s death.
“Di pa sad ko katuo ba nga wala na akong anak, nga patay na siya didto pagkaabot nako sa balay. Nya, wala pa gyoy tawo didto. Wala man lang nakapada niya didto sa hospital (I cannot believe that my son is already gone, that he was already dead when I came home. There was no one else home. No one had taken him to the hospital),” she said. / JDG, AYB
