‘All he wanted was to come home’
The family of slain GrabCar driver Gerardo Maquidato Jr. came face to face with the man who allegedly killed him. Maquidato’s widow, Brenda, wailed at primary suspect Narc Tulod Delemios when he was presented to the media in Camp Crame. “I know my husband did not fight you off. How could you do that to him? I know all he wanted was to come home to his family,” she said.
Emotions ran high on Wednesday when the family of Grab driver Gerardo Maquidato Jr. came face to face with the man who admitted killing him.
“How could you? He just wanted to come home,” Maquidato’s widow, Brenda, said upon seeing the suspect, 25year-old Narc Tulod Delemios.
“All I wanted was his money but he was insistent. He fought back so I committed the crime,” Delemios replied.
The confrontation took place during a press briefing at Camp Crame after the suspect surrendered to the Pasay City police on Tuesday night. Authorities on Monday gave Delemios two days to surrender or he would be hunted down.
Delemios maintained he was forced to shoot Maquidato when the latter tried to grab the gun from him. But according to the police, the victim died of a single gunshot wound in the back of the head, the bullet exiting through his left eye.
Delemios used his live-in partner’s phone to book a ride with Grab on Oct. 26, the police said. He then robbed and shot Maquidato, whose body was found on Bonanza Street in Barangay 189, Pasay City. Delemios fled in the victim’s Toyota Innova.
“I know it is hard for the family of the driver to forgive me. I did not know he was a Good Samaritan. I am asking for your forgiveness but it is really impossible to bring him back,” Delemios said.
“I know my husband didn’t fight back. How could you do that to him? All he wanted was to come home to his family; he just wanted to get away from you. You should have just taken everything,” a tearful Brenda replied.
Grab named Maquidato one of its best driver-partners last year after he let a sickly passenger ride for free. This was after the passenger’s thank you post on social media went viral, earning praise for the driver.
Philippine National Police chief, Director General Ronald dela Rosa, ordered Delemios tested for drug use. At one point during the briefing, he berated the suspect for grinning as Brenda spoke.
Dela Rosa assured the victim’s family that the PNP had an airtight case against Delemios, adding that they would ensure his conviction.
Maquidato’s mother, Maximiana, described her son as a good and hardworking man who loved his family very much. “The Lord said we must forgive 777 times but I can’t forgive you even once. You treated him like an animal. You’re worse than an animal. You will regret what you did for the rest of your life,” she told the suspect.
The Pasay police chief, Senior Supt. Dionisio Bartolome, said two eyewitnesses recalled that “there was a lull of a few minutes after the shooting.”
“It was as if (Delemios) was thinking ‘Why did I shoot him?’ That was before he pushed the victim off the vehicle,” Bartolome said.
Delemios is also a suspect in the October 2014 murder of Gino Balbuena, a 19-year-old Parañaque resident. A warrant for his arrest was issued by a Parañaque City judge in February 2015.