MANILA, Philippines ? The remains of the Filipino mother and her son slain by her Japanese husband arrived Sunday afternoon at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, almost two weeks after they were brutally killed in Tokyo.
Amid sobs, relatives of Crisanta Lopez Nagano, 33, and seven-month-old Naomasa gently stroked and patted the white satin-draped coffins as they were unloaded at NAIA?s cargo warehouse at 2 p.m.
Crisanta?s husband, Masayoshi Nagano, 43, confessed to the killings purportedly because of financial woes. Crisanta bled to death after she was stabbed several times by Nagano. Naomasa died of strangulation.
?Di na po namin nakita na buhay. Nandito siya nakakahon (We did not get to see her alive. She?s here in a box),? said Crisanta?s cousin Jennalyn Hiyan.
Hiyan last saw her cousin in 2005 and never got the chance to see the baby. Michael Lopez, Crisanta?s youngest brother, also never got to see his nephew as his sister did not come home after giving birth in Japan.
?When she got pregnant, she was unable to come home anymore ? she just called. Then the last news we heard of them was that they were already dead ? We will just accept it,? said Lopez in Filipino.
Lopez said the remains would be flown to their native Roxas City early Tuesday morning.
Autopsy findings and other forensic evidence gathered at the Nagano residence in Higashi Kurume City in Tokyo showed that Crisanta was stabbed to death while the baby was strangled, the Department of Foreign Affairs said earlier.
Nagano had intended to kill himself, he told Japanese authorities, but could not muster the will to take his own life.
Citing a report from the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo, Cresente Relacion, executive director of the DFA Migrant Worker?s Affairs Office, said Crisanta?s husband told Japanese authorities that unpaid loans drove him to commit the double murder.
?According to the report, he did it because he had a big loan he couldn?t pay anymore. He had a loan from a bank,? Relacion told reporters at the airport.
?We are not preempting results of the investigation but as far as the report to the DFA, the husband has confessed. And just like here, that?s considered a heinous crime. He took two lives. That?s double parricide,? he said.
