In all cultures, filial piety is one of the most sacred of obligations. In fact, the Bible in Ephesians 6:2-3 says that the commandment, “Honor thy father and mother,” is the first one with a promise, “that it may be well with you and you may live long on earth.” Thus, to attain the promise of long life, one must celebrate those persons who gave you life.

That is why parricide, the killing of one’s parent, is considered one of the most despicable of crimes. In every legal system in the world, it carries the gravest of penalties. In Roman Law, whence the bedrock principles of the Civil Law system in our country originated (as carried over via Spanish Law), a person convicted of killing his mother and/or father was meted out the punishment of poena cullei, whereby the guilty would be placed in a sack with vicious animals such as snakes, feral dogs, wild monkeys and the like, sewn up tight and the sack thrown into the river. As the sack sank, the desperate drowning animals would panic and assault each other and the convict as well. What a way to die, but as kids these days would say, “DASURV!”

In these more enlightened times, cruel and unusual punishment is proscribed. That is why having more than one wife is prohibited, because the penalty to that is not only having multiple women nagging you, but having several mothers-in-law as well. Levity aside, parricide is penalized in our country now by reclusion perpetua, life in prison, although on good behavior, you could be paroled in 40 years. Scant comfort in that.

That was what was imposed on Nelson Antonio in a case that is close to my heart. You see, Nelson’s pretty sister, Xialen, approached me in 2017 to ask for the help of the Citizen’s Crime Watch (of which I was then chief legal counsel) to locate Nelson, who in 2013 had killed his father in a dispute over money.

It seems that Nelson was taken into custody after the dastardly deed and was incarcerated in Las Piñas City, only for some moron on the police force to release him instead of turning him over to the Parañaque police when it was ruled that jurisdiction belonged to Parañaque. Nelson naturally used that eminent display of stupidity to make himself scarce.

Law enforcement had no clue until I had the idea of bringing the matter to my close friend Gus Abelgas’ show SOCO (Scene Of the Crime Operations), where the operatic undertones of the real-life killing were not lost on him. Dramatizing the events compellingly, and televising the fugitive’s name and visage for the world to see, someone in Abu Dhabi who chanced upon the show on The Filipino Channel (TFC) recognized the suspect as her neighbor. She called the police, who arrested Nelson who, as it turned out, was in the United Arab Emirates on an investor’s visa (how that was possible is beyond me). Repatriated in 2018, he faced trial and, last 21 March, was found guilty and sentenced accordingly.

It is said that the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. None finer in Nelson’s case as, by the combined efforts of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group under General Albert Ferro (who has since retired), the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption of which I am also part, the private lawyers, and the National Prosecution Service, as well as media friends who kept public interest in the case alive, all combined to see to it that justice will be done.

Those people were all there in Judge Regina Paz Ramos-Chavez’s courtroom on the morning of 21 March, looking apprehensive at first as the verdict was being promulgated, but heaving a collective sigh of relief (with Xialen and her other siblings breaking into sobs) when the phrase “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” was heard. I must admit, I cried a little, too.