CEBU CITY – A murder complaint and two counts of parricide will be filed against the coconut vendor who brutally killed his live-in partner and his two children in a mountain barangay in Naga City, southern Cebu on Monday morning, Cebu City.
Police said Carlo Camporedondo will still be charged even if there were claims that he was mentally unstable when he committed the gruesome crime inside their house in Barangay Lutac.
READ: https://mb.com.ph/2025/1/27/coconut-vendor-hacks-live-in-partner-2-kids-dead-in-cebu
“We have what we call presumption of sanity. All of us are presumed to be sane. So, it would be his burden to prove before the court that he is insane or mentally challenged,” said Police Lt. Col. Verniño Noserale, chief of the Naga City Police Station.
Camporedondo was arrested shortly after he brutally hacked his partner and his two children with a bolo.
The victims, Junelyn Jimenez, 32; John Carlo Camporedondo, 11, and LJ Camporedondo, 2, sustained severe hack wounds. The necks of the victims were almost severed when neighbors found them inside their house.
The suspect was a known drug addict in the barangay. He was under medication due to his mental condition.
Carlo was arrested in a quarry site in Barangay Cogon, Naga City where he hid after the crime.
The suspect is recuperating in a Cebu City hospital for a bullet wound in the knee. He was shot after he tried to attack pursuing police with a bolo.
Noserale said the suspect had been taken to the psychiatric ward of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center here due to nervous breakdown. He said it was possible that Carlo attacked his mother first.
He said jealousy, financial problems, illegal drug use, and gambling addiction may have driven the suspect to commit the crime.
Carlo was a coconut vendor. “The couple had been fighting because of Carlo’s laziness. He was always on his phone playing online games instead of selling ‘buko,’” said Noserale.
Noserale that the suspect’s livelihood was affected because of his gambling addiction.
The couple has another child but was in school when the crime happened. The seven-year-old is already in the custody of social workers for stress debriefing.
The city government of Naga has promised financial assistance for the burial of the victims.