Dead over $2,000 loan

Be warned. This may be a disturbing post to some. Words like chopped up, human limbs are afoot.

In The Straits Times on Friday was the news that Filipina maid Guen Aguilar -- she accused of killing and chopping-up her fellow maid and good friend Jane La Puebla on Sept 7, 2005 -- had pleaded guilty to and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

And for the first time on Friday, those of us who wondered what could have transpired on that fateful day finally got to read the details of the case.

To wit: The two domestic helpers were good friends. On Sept 7, Jane went to Guen's employers house to prepare lunch with her friend. They were chatting while working and everything was fine until Guen brought up the matter of the S$2,000 (Php66,360) loan she had extended to Jane, S$1,000 of which was loaned from a local loan shark.

(For perspective, a Filipino maid typically earns S$350 a month here in Singapore. In today's exchange rate, that is about Php11,600.)

Guen, 30, was said to have suggested that Jane, 27, sell her video and digital cameras to partly repay the debt, which made Jane agitated and she started raising her voice, according to the paper. Guen then tried to placate her while still attempting to settle the matter. But when the suggestion of selling the cameras was again mentioned, the two started to really fight.

They hit, scratched, pulled each other's hair, lunged for the other's throat. Guen bit Jane. The struggle went from the laundry area to Guen's bedroom where somehow Jane's blood got spattered on the walls, floor and mattress. And when Guen got the chance, she grabbed a cushion from her bed and smothered her friend.

After a few seconds, the report said, Guen lifted the cushion and she started sobbing because she thought she had killed Jane. But then Jane stirred so Guen strangled the younger woman until she finally stopped breathing.

For 2 days, Guen kept the body in her employers' house, inside a travelling bag in her room. On the third day and after her employers had left for the office, Guen then went to Mustafa Centre in Little India where she bought a cleaver, an axe, gloves, wallpaper, detergent, pillowcases, a bedsheet and some garbage bags.

Back in the flat, she then started the horrific task of dismembering the body. She placed the head and each of the limbs in separate plastic bags. These were then stuffed into a bag together with some newspapers.

The torso she wrapped in newspapers and a garbage bag which she also then stuffed into another bag.

That done, she then cleaned up the blood traces with the detergent, put up the wallpaper over the spots on the wall that remained stained even after her clean-up and changed the bloodied sheets and pillowcases.

By midday, she took the bag with the head and limbs by cab to Orchard MRT Station, where she dumped it near a mural wall.

She went home, took the second bag with the torso and this time went to MacRitchie Reservoir in another cab. When she got there, the cabbie was said to have even offered to help her carry her bag, an offer she refused. Alone later, she took the garbage bag out of the travelling bag and dumped it along a footpath.

She was back at her employers' condo by almost 3pm, her last act to conceal the crime being to dispose of the second travelling bag at the lobby of the building's basement carpark.

And how was Guen immediately tracked by the police? Inside the garbage bag containing the torso were newspapers, one of which was an International Herald Tribune page bearing the name and delivery address of Guen's employers.

For manslaughter, Guen faces either life imprisonment or up to 10 years in jail. She initially faced a murder charge but this was reduced to manslaughter early in the year due to her mental condition at the time of the killing.

Sentencing will be on May 29.

Blog roll, pls

Despite reading in the newspapers and hearing about the rising popularity of blogging for years, I never really went around looking up how a blog would look like and read until late last year.

It happened innocently enough. During dinner at the office one day, my colleague excitedly told those of us working the night shift with her that she had stumbled upon this blog written by a Malaysian young adult who detailed his almost daily drug use and experimentation.

Of course, our interests were peaked, mine especially (but not because I secretly long to be a drug addict, duh. I'm too vain to sport the drugged out, crazed, lost look). I was fascinated because while most drug abusers will go to great lengths to hide their problems from society, here was this rich, young man going against the code of druggies and detailing his downward spiral for all to read and pass judgement on. Maybe he was longing to be found out?

Anyway, because of the young man's blog, we had a great discussion going on round the table that night, which ended with the young interns trying to one-up each other on who has read the most bizarre blog.

Of course, the next time I was online and surfing, blogging and bloggers were on my mind. I googled blogs, Pinoy blogs, Filipino blogs, just to know what is already out there. And know what? There is a LOT out there. Blogs written by countrymen from all over the world, sharing their stories, thoughts, observations, travels, jokes, recipes and more. Some are good, some way better than others. Some are funny, irreverent while some are deep and insightful.

In the few months since I started blog reading, I've come to be a regular 'lurker' in about 6-8 blogs -- I say lurker because I always read their entries, but I don't make my presence known by writing comments and such. Until I started my own experiment of a blog two months ago, of course.

If you notice, on the right hand column of this blog is a spot for links to blogs that I often read. For two months until last night, I left it unedited, showing Bloggers' default link to Google News. Then last night, I thought, why don't I finally email the bloggers whose entries I read almost daily to tell them how much I enjoy reading their blogs? While at it, maybe I could get their ok too for me to link to them from my site, right?

So that I did and woohoo, the links now featured on the 'Blogs I Read' spot are the first of the good people I wrote to last night who responded immediately with their okidoki. (Much appreciated, guys!) If you want to read something more worthy after my drivel, check out those links (and their links in turn) and get to read the many stories of the unfolding lives of the people who are online.

Ah, blogging. It's been fun so far learning the ropes. I think I've awakened one or two dormant areas in both my right and left halves of the brain while trying to grapple with HTML, Photoshop and pointing my camera in the right direction. But alltogether, its been good.

Home till the cows come home

I received an email from a long-lost friend last weekend and one of the things she asked about my life now in the little island that is Singapore was what my home looked like. It was the first time for anyone to ask me this question and since I'm not one to quash curiosity about my domecile after having been asked nicely enough, I dutifully took photos of the flat. (Click each photo for a bigger view.)

And now it's your turn. To the faithful millions who read this blog (that's right, you and you. Haha!), won't you please take photos of your living room and kitchen too and send the pics to me? I will put it up here just for fun, our kind of virtual home visits, eh?

Do it! Just do it!

Phrase of the day: Till the cows come home = for a long but indefinite time. (from The Phrase Finder)

Rain and Essec

The weather here in Singapore has been fantastic of late due to intermittent rain. And so we've been spared (for now) the really humid heat that is usual in these here parts at this time of the year.

I love this kind of weather -- cool, a bit wet, the sun hidden behind clouds. It's perfect for just staying in, curling up with a book or magazine or sprawling self across from the telly.

Wish it could be like this for a few more weeks. I certainly am hoping we won't have to contend with 36 deg C temperatures like we did last year.

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I'm so excited to know that Essec, a prestigious French business school established in 1907, has finally opened its Asian centre in Singapore.

The school's MBA course is a short 6 months while their executive programmes are typically 4 weeks. Six months for an MBA! (Halleluiah! Someone finally got it. That busy rat racers simply can't afford to be away from the cubicle farm for too long, damnit.)

I can't wait to see their curriculum. And of course, their fees.

According to the Straits Times Interactive, the centre here will also develop research in areas including luxury brands, biotechnology, innovation in services, urban management and risk management. (Research in luxury brands? Aba, winner!)

When INSEAD opened their Singapore campus last year, I also checked out their curriculum for the executive MBA course. The 14-month course would have been perfect for me if only I had 85,000 euros to pay for it. :(

Paging Bill Gates or Mr Mittal of Mittal Steel. Can you folks please, please, please sponsor my EMBA?