Cagayan de Oro City — A battered wife crushed her estranged husband to death after he allegedly attacked her while she was operating a backhoe at a dike construction site in Purok 6, Barangay Laligan, Valencia, Bukidnon, on Saturday afternoon.

Police said the woman was working around 4 PM when her estranged husband appeared at the site and began pulling her from behind and beating her. She managed to climb back onto the backhoe and swung the bucket to stop him from dragging her down.

In an interview with Radio Mindanao Network DXMB at the police station, the wife said it was not her intention to kill her husband and that she used the backhoe only to block his attack. She added it was the second time he assaulted her at the construction site; two weeks earlier he allegedly struck and broke the machine’s shield, costing her P9,000 to replace.

“I was shouting while driving the backhoe away from my husband to prevent him from pulling me down" She said.

Despite her pleas, the husband reportedly clung to the bucket. The wife then accidentally dropped the bucket, pinning him to the ground.

“I was just defending myself," she said.

He was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

The wife said her husband, also a backhoe operator, wanted to reconcile despite a protection order already issued in her favor. She said she had filed a case against him for maltreatment over the past 15 years but he continued to harass her at work.