The Triple Murder that Shocked the Filipino Community
Sydney, Australia
September 7, 2014
Milligan wrote what Gonzales had said: If you dont think I am feeling any pain, you are wrong, Gonzales 23, told his maternal grandmother Amelita Claridades, and aunt, Emily Luna during the court hearing. He added: I want you to know that whatever pain you are feeling, I am feeling it worse than you, he said.
Gonzales was found guilty by a jury of all four charges and was sentenced on 17 September 2004 to three consecutive life sentences, without parole with Justice Bruce James remarking I consider that the murders show features of very great heinousness and that there are no facts mitigating the objective seriousness of the murders and hence the murders fall within the worst category of cases of murder at common law.
Filipino migrants have been known to be law-abiding citizens in their adopted country. Some observers even noted the idea of docility in the behaviour of Filipinos when they are overseas, despite the hardship of living far away from home and family.
In Australia, the same could be said with Filipino expatriates who decided to migrate, live and work Down Under. Everyone who settled in Australia seems to have found the perfect paradise for their dreams to raise their families, to venture into a small business, and or to work to support their families back in the Philippines.
However, there have been a few minor negative incidents such as the young Filipina bank teller who absconded with a few hundred thousand dollars from her bank employer. There was also the case of the Filipina parking officer who, having worked for more than ten years, was dismissed from work for some unbelievable reasons, including her questionable ability to converse with visitors to Parramatta Council in the English language.
There was also the case of a father-of-two who committed suicide three days after having been featured in a story by Channel 9s A Current Affairs accusing him of ripping off customers in his Rozelle electronics repair shop by charging for repairs that were not needed or performed.
The Gonzales family belong to a prominent family of Baguio City, the summer capital of the Philippines. Teddy Gonzales was a respected law professor in Baguio City. They owned a hotel and other business interests in the city. The family lived as a well adjusted Filipino family with strict Catholic upbringing. It was after the devastation of the 1990 Killer Quake in Northern Luzonthat wrought extensive damage to public and private property leaving thousands homeless and killing nearly 300 persons in the whole province of Benguet alonethat the journey to Sydney of the Gonzales family began. Baguio City, situated over 500 feet above sea level, was among the areas hardest hit by the earthquake. The natural calamity caused 28 collapsed buildings, including hotels, factories, government and university buildings, as well as many private homes and establishments. One of those levelled to the ground was the hotel owned by Gonzalez family.
It was that event that contributed to the decision of Teddy Gonzales and wife Maria Loiva to leave the Philippines and migrated to Australia. They arrived in Sydney in the 1990s, settling first in Blacktown, where Teddy Gonzales established a law practice specialising in conveyancing, with his wife helping to run their modest law office. The youngest daughter, Clodine, went to school at Loreto College, Kirribili, while eldest son, Sef, studied high school and passed the HSC, but he received score that would not allow him to take up medicine, the dream course of his mother. He in turn studied law at the University of NSW.
The Gonzales children were raised in a loving, stable environment by parents who were focused on providing their children with a secure future. The parents were described as strict and devout and were reported that, whilst his parents expectations of his behaviour and academic performance were high, Sef considered those expectations were not unreasonable. As a Catholic devout family, the Gonzales family regularly attended St. Michaels Catholic Church in Blacktown before relocating to North Ryde. A church goer remembers that the Gonzales couple would attend church services at 8am and they would come three or four times a week.
During the last rites for his deceased parents and sister, Sef paid tributes and remembered his departed loved ones in front of 250 mourners at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church. It was located just three blocks away from the North Ryde home where his parents and sister were stabbed and bashed 11 days earlier, Sef Gonzales who became sole suspect in the triple murder case, said: The best way I could possibly describe my father is that he was my hero and role model. He believed that there was no limit to what he could do for his family, friends or those less fortunate. I admired him in every way possible and my greatest aim in life was to one day become at least half of the man that he was.... My mother was the heart of my family. She was the heart of her friends and anyone who knew her. She had a very strong, passionate character and always stood up for what she believed was right. ... My sister was the life in the family. She was an expert on smiling and made us all believe that life should be taken lightly. ...It is difficult to explain the love and ties in my family but if you were to picture the four corners of the world, in my worlds [they] were the four. ... The other three corners of my world are now gone.
The court decision - Four years after the horrendous multiple crime, the court found out among others things:
The prisoner committed three murders, killing his parents and his sister by assaulting them at close quarters. He had an intention to kill each of the victims. He killed the victims by stabbing them with a knife or, in the case of Clodine, striking her with a bat and strangling her, as well as stabbing her with a knife. There was a high degree of violence in all of the murders.
The killings were premeditated, the prisoner had it in mind to kill his parents from the time he began researching poisons on the Internet some months before 10 July 2001. The prisoner gave poison to his mother about ten days before 10 July, intending to kill her.
The motives for the killings were to prevent his parents withdrawing privileges they had extended to him and to obtain his parents wealth, without delay and as their sole heir.
The prisoner was not at the time of committing the offences suffering from any mental illness or mental disorder or any mental state which could mitigate the criminality of his conduct.
I consider that the murders show features of very great heinousness and that there are no facts mitigating the objective seriousness of the murder and hence the murders fall within the worst category of cases of murder at common law. ... On the three charges of murder, I sentence the prisoner to concurrent sentence of imprisonment for life, each to date from 13 June 2002.
The Filipino community seems to have accepted the court verdict, except for a few who beg to disagree to the court findings and decision of the jury, including Fr. Paul Cahill who told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2004: I have believed him all along, I have accepted what he has said, he has pleaded not guilty and I think there is a lot of light and shade in what is there... it depends on how people look at it.
Fr. Cahill has known Gonzales since he was a 10-year-old-altar boy at his parish, Our Lady of Dolours Chatswood. He has visited Gonzales in prison every week since he was charged in June 2002.
Gonzales was granted approval to appeal his conviction and his sentence. The Supreme Court determined that the statements taken from Gonzales by police on the night of the murders may be inadmissible, as he was not cautioned. His appeal, however, was dismissed as there had been no miscarriage of justice according to the court and his convictions remained.
From a new book Connecting Two Cultures: Australia and the Philippines by Renato Perdon, Manila Prints, Sydney, 2014.