Maguindanao man kills grandson mistaken as tiyanak”

PARANG, Maguindanao – A 42-year-old man killed his 4-year-old grandson after he mistaken the child as tiyanak” on Sunday night while the town was experiencing power outages, police and suspect said.
A tiyanak” is a vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that imitates the form of a child.
The suspect, Orak Mantawil, was in total disbelief when interrogated at Parang Police Station. Full of remorse, he sought forgiveness from the child’s parents and his relatives.
I really don’t know why it happened, I was drunk but I don’t use drugs,” he said, his head vowed inside the Parang PNP lock-up cell.
SPO2 Alinader Rasol, investigator on case, said the incident occurred at about 7 p.m. in the family owned home in Bliss, Barangay Nituran.
Blackout at that time, when I noticed as if I was carrying a ‘tiyanak,’ then I don’t know what happened next,” Rasol quoted Mantawil as saying.
Rasol said the child, named as James Velasco, sustained body contusions, hack wounds, head injuries and human bites in his chest. He died before reaching the hospital.
The kid’s parents refused to accept their eldest child was gone and died violently.
Fatima Velasco, the boy’s mother, recalled that the suspect brought the child inside a room at the height of power interruption. Then she heard her father as saying I killed someone.”
She later saw her child still breathing and rushed him to the hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
He can no longer bring back the life of my child although he sought forgiveness,” she said. May kagat ng tao ang anak ko, parang sinipsip ang dugo(He has bites from human teeth), it appears his blood was sucked.”
Mantawil was charged with parricide.
Rasol said Mantawil will be subjected to psychological examination and illegal drug test. (Ferdinandh Cabrera)