■ BUSINESSMAN CHARGED FOR KILLING LIVE-IN PARTNER

Police, NBI 7 operatives file murder and theft cases against Albasin’s lover. Police consider Albasin’s murder solved following suspect’s arrest last week.

The family of Mae Azalia Albasin brought her to her final resting place yesterday, a day after her killer was officially accused of murder and theft. Albasin, 33, was shot dead by her lover, 74-year-old Leo Zafra, in Barangay Lawaan I, Talisay City last Tuesday. “She’s already in a safe place and wouldn’t get hurt anymore,” Albasin’s nine-year-old daughter said. The Talisay police and the National Bureau of Investigation 7 filed a joint complaint before the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office against Zafra last Saturday.

She’s finally at peace.

This was what the nine-yearold daughter of May Azalia Albasin said after the burial of her mother inside the Carreta Cemetery in Cebu City yesterday afternoon.

“She’s already in a safe place and wouldn’t get hurt anymore,” she said.

Albasin, 33, was shot dead by her lover, 74-year-old Leo Zafra, in Barangay Lawaan I, Talisay City last Tuesday.

“When we saw each other at the fiscal’s office, he kept glaring at us,” Remy Lugan, Albasin’s mother, told SunStar Cebu.

Murder and theft cases were already filed against Zafra last Saturday.

Local police led by Supt. Jason Villamater and operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 filed a joint complaint before the Talisay City Prosecutor’s Office.

Zafra then underwent inquest proceedings before Talisay City Prosecutor Marshall Rubia, who opened his office after they closed last Friday for the 120th Founding Anniversary of the Department of Justice.

A theft complaint was filed against Zafra for stealing Albasin’s cellular phone after he killed her.

Lugan said their family was relieved that Zafra was arrested in Zamboanga del Norte two days after her daughter was murdered. Zafra admitted to killing Albasin because of jealousy.

“But our fight won’t stop here. It would continue in the court until he will pay for his sins in jail,” she said.

Albasin’s daughter promised her that she will do good in her studies and watch over her grandmother.

She said she wants to become a lawyer or a flight attendant.

“I want to help defend the poor,” she said.

The Grade 4 pupil said she saw her mother when they went to NBI last week to seek the agency’s help over her mother’s death.

“I saw her standing inside the building, waving at me. She was wearing a white dress and she looked happy,” she said.

The family now plans to leave Talisay and find some place else to live.

Rubia said the cases against Zafra will be forwarded to the Regional Trial Court in Talisay City and will be raffled today.

Villamater told SunStar Cebu they can now consider Albasin’s murder solved following Zafra’s arrest. /