The recent double murder case of a Paranaque police officer in Paniqui, Tarlac caught the headlines yesterday morning. In the viral video, we could see a commotion involving the victims Anton/Frank Gregorio and his mother, Sonya Gregorio versus Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca and his daughter. Minutes later and in a fit of rage, Nuezca pulled the trigger and shot the mother and son in close range. His daughter witnessed the whole incident, unmoved. After the shooting, the father and
daughter reportedly left the crime scene as if nothing happened. To date, he is now in jail and I hope that justice will be served fast for the victims.
We condemn the senseless killing. We condemn the brutality of the murder. We condemn what Jonel Nuezca did to his neighbors. But do we need to gang up on a minor to pay for her father’s sins? Based on Noli de Castro’s interview with one of the witnesses and the one who took the video, there had been a long-standing feud about the right of way between the Gregorios and Jonel Nuezca. Therefore, the “boga” incident was not the first time the two parties had a heated discussion. Most likely, the hostility had always been there and just waiting for a tragedy like this to happen. Jonel’s daughter had nothing to do with the right of way feud.
In the video, we could conclude that she’s the bratty daughter who provoked her father into killing Sonya and Anton. But let’s not forget that it was her father who had first-hand issues with the Gregorios, not her.
In the confines of their home, the girl probably heard that her father was right and therefore kept a resentment against their neighbors for “violating” their right of way. In short, there were probably issues and discussions that the child heard before and she felt that her father or their family was the underdog.
Police are trained and are supposed to practice maximum tolerance. If Jonel Nuezca could easily be triggered by Sonya’s reply to his daughter, you could just imagine what he could have done in other instances aside from this one. My point is, why do we need to include the daughter on the blame when a responsible adult and a police officer should be the one to have kept his cool, in the first place?
We don’t know the parenting style of the Nuezcas and how the family felt entitled to the privilege of having a
man in uniform under their roof. What the child needs right now is a psychological assessment because we don’t want another Nuezca to hit the headlines for human rights violation later on.
The World of Second Chances 