Child mistaken for 'tiyanak' killed by own grandfather in Maguindanao

PARANG, Maguindanao – A four-year-old boy here died at the hands of his grandfather who mistook him for a tiyanak on Sunday night while the town was experiencing power outages.

SPO2 Alinader Rasol, case investigator, said the child sustained contusions, hack wounds, head injuries and human bites in his chest. He died before reaching the hospital.

The suspect, 42, was immediately arrested and could not believe what he had done when interrogated by the police. He sought forgiveness from the child's parents.

“I really don’t know why it happened, I was drunk but I don’t use drugs,” he said in the vernacular while inside the Parang police lock-up cell.

Rasol 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.

A “tiyanak” is a vampiric creature in Philippine mythology that imitates the form of a child.

The victim’s parents could not believe their child died in such a violent way.

Fatima Velasco, the boy’s mother, recalled that the suspect brought the child inside a room at the height of the power interruption. Then she heard her father 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.”

The suspect was charged with parricide and will be subjected to psychological examination and illegal drug test, Rasol said.  —KBK, GMA News