The 15-year-old girl who ended up comatose after she was struck in the head by a bullet on New Year’s Eve in Malabon City has passed away.

Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial announced that Emilyn Villanueva suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday.

Her remains will undergo an autopsy, Ubial said.

Earlier, the Inquirer learned about Villanueva’s death through National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Supt. Oscar Albayalde who said the teenager was declared dead by Dr. Christian Perolina on Wednesday night.

Since being shot in the head while watching a fireworks display near her house in Malabon, Villanueva had been confined at the surgical intensive care unit of Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center (JRMMC) in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Hours before, case investigator PO2 Maria Teresa Dagman told the Inquirer that the teenager remained in a coma, based on an update given by Melody Labrador of Barangay Agustin where the victim lived.

There was also a media report released earlier which said that Villanueva’s condition had improved as she no longer had a fever.

Reached by the Inquirer at 5 p.m., over an hour before she would pass away, a JRMMC staffer confirmed that the girl remained at ICU.

50 per cent of brain damaged

Villanueva, a scholar who wanted to become a chef, had been given by doctors a “very low chance of survival.”

According to JRMMC hospital director Dr. Emmanuel Montaña Jr., the bullet had damaged 50 per cent of her brain, affecting the parts responsible for speech, motor and other critical functions.

The teenager was initially reported as one of the four victims of indiscriminate firing during the holiday season.

The police, however, claimed that the shooter fired his gun deliberately although the teenager was not the target.

KIDAPAWAN CITY – All was quiet at the North Cotabato District Jail here and the inmates appeared asleep.

In fact, they were anticipating a daring predawn raid on Wednesday to rescue members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), according to Felix Capalla, one of the jail leaders.

At 12:30 a.m. black-uniformed men, some wearing balaclavas and armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 50 cal. rifles, stormed the jail and sprang 158 prisoners in the biggest mass escape recorded so far in the country.

Darkness enveloped the jail protected by 20 guards, but their pistols and M16 rifles were no match for the firepower of the attackers, suspected to be BIFF guerrillas, a breakaway faction of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

“The jail guards fought the armed raiders but were overpowered by the sheer number of attackers,” Capalla said.

The men opened Cell Nos. 6 and 7, where high-profile inmates such as those accused of involvement in bomb attacks in the province and other parts of Central Mindanao were detained, he said.

Capalla said the attackers first rescued the Tamayan brothers and the Salik siblings, all alleged BIFF members.

They then opened other cells and freed more inmates.

“They destroyed the padlocks,” Capalla said.

A total of 158 inmates fled under cover of darkness, according to Supt. Peter Bongngat, the warden.

Four escapees-Joey Aranas, Allan Tolentino, Edfel Lescano and Rapacon Amboludto Dimawan-were subsequently killed.

Biggest jailbreak

In Manila, Chief Insp. Xavier Solda, spokesperson for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), said six escapees were killed by pursuing security forces.

Six escapees were later recaptured, including two who surrendered.

Solda said the raid was carried out by 100 men and that they were out to spring BIFF men charged with murder and drug trafficking.

“To my knowledge, this is the biggest jailbreak in the history of the bureau,” Solda said.

The President’s spokesperson, Ernesto Abella, appealed for “calm and sobriety” amid speculation that BIFF guerrillas were involved.

He said no specific information on the identity of the attackers had so far been received.

“We assure our people that manhunt operations on the escapees are now under way,” he said in a statement.

A civilian was also killed in the hunt for the escapees.

He was identified as Satar Manalundong, a barangay councilman.

He was allegedly shot by policemen who mistook him for an escapee.

“I lost one guard,” Bongngat said.

The guard was identified as JO1 Excell Ray Vicedo.

Vicedo was manning the gates of the jail when the attackers, led by Esmael Nasser, alias Commander Derbi, arrived.

Vicedo was immediately shot dead.

Well-planned operation

Derbi was also an escapee from the same jail. He was detained on bombing charges and the killing of Kabacan Vice Mayor Policarpio Dulay in 2013.

He and two other suspected BIFF members escaped in August last year.

Bongngat said Derbi and his men switched off the power to the entire jail while engaging other guards in a firefight.

Capalla said that before the attack, some of the 1,511 inmates in the 750-capacity jail were already talking about an impending rescue operation.

“I started hearing the plot before New Year’s Day. Word had been spreading that inmates of Cell No. 8 will be rescued. But prior to that, some inmates also told us to be ready,” Capalla said.

He said he informed Bongngat about the planned attack.

Capalla said Bongngat immediately asked for reinforcement and policemen were deployed to the jail.

But on Jan. 2, he said the policemen disappeared and only BJMP personnel were left to secure the jail.

“It was well planned,” Bongngat said.

A report by the regional police office quoted one of the recaptured inmates, Jason Angkanan, as saying he noticed that their cell was not yet padlocked when he went to sleep at 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

He said he was awakened by gunfire at 1 a.m. and then heard some inmates shouting that they should go out of the jail because the attackers would burn the building.

He said he joined the others in scaling the wall.

Angkanan was arrested by village watchmen at the nearby Central Mindanao Institute and Research Center around 2 a.m. and later turned over to the military.

Denials

Both the BIFF and the MILF denied claims their members were behind the raid.

Abu Misri Mama, the BIFF spokesperson, told the Inquirer: “We have other priority targets. And if ever we do conduct operations, we would never deny responsibility.”

Ghadzali Jaafar, the MILF political affairs vice chair, said his group “was not a fool to conduct such atrocity while talking peace with the government.”

Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno directed the BJMP to intensify the hunt for the remaining escapees.

Sueno also expressed grief over the death of Vicedo.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of one valiant comrade who offered his life in the fulfillment of his avowed duty. He and the other jail wardens on duty held on to their post amid the havoc, the true mark of a public servant.”

A husband in Japan went for 20 years without speaking to his wife because he was jealous of the attention she paid to their children, according to reports.

Eventually, the couple’s desperate 18-year-old son wrote to a Hokkaido TV show asking them to fix the situation as he had never heard his parents have a conversation.

Dad Otou Katayama would reportedly only grunt and nod in response to wife Yumi’s efforts to speak to him, despite the pair having three grown-up children.

Otou Katayama had not spoken to wife Yumi for 20 years, until one of their children wrote to a reality TV show asking for help to fix it. PHOTO: YOUTUBE

A meeting was arranged for the pair on a park bench where they had their first date, as their emotional offspring looked on.

“Somehow it’s been a while since we talked,” said Mr Katayama, from Nara, in southern Japan, according to a Daily Mail report.

“You were so concerned about the kids.

“Yumi, up until now, you have endured a lot of hardship. I want you to know I’m grateful for everything.”

He said he was envious of the attention she gave the children.

“I was kind of… jealous. I was sulking about it. There’s no going back now I guess.”

Background laughter is heard when he recommends they speak again sometime.

It follows reports that Japanese men and women are giving up on dating and are instead simply marrying their friends, said the Independent.

A Government survey this year found 69 per cent of Japanese men and 59 per cent of Japanese women do not have a partner.

This article was first published on Jan 4, 2017.
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