NEWS FEATURE Farias 'drove her to suicide' Posted:0:18 AM (Manila Time) | November 24, 2001 By Leah Salterio and Juliet Javellana Inquirer News Service
SHE tried to find help, but in the end nobody could help Maria Teresa Carlson against a powerful and "untouchable" husband. Ana Leah Sarabia, vice president of the women's group Kalakasan, which tried to rescue Carlson from her domestic violence ordeal five years ago, admitted Friday that she had expected Carlsons tragic end. "It was a high possibility because she had nowhere to go," Sarabia said, as she went over the records of her group's three-year relationship with Carlson. "The fact that she was forced to take her own life this time means that it must be extremely horrible," she said.
Sarabia shivered at the mention of Carlson's husband, Rodolfo Farias, a former governor and congressman of Ilocos Norte. She said she believes that after what Carlson had endured, Farias did not even have to push her off the condominium's balcony. "He drove her into killing herself. Probably he's just pushing her so hard so that she would kill herself and he would not be accused of murder," she said. "I don't know what to say about him anymore but he certainly did not do it alone. He would not have grown into this kind of monster if the people around him did not tolerate his cruelty," Sarabia said. Sarabia said that since 1996, when Carlson last asked help to be rescued, she must have endured horrible pain. "That proves how strong she was, she was able to keep herself alive for five years," she said.
Carlson is the classic story illustrating the "battered wife syndrome," Sarabia said, for which, she added, there is no recourse to the law in the Philippines. Carlson first came to the attention of the public when she won the Binibining Pilipinas Miss Young International title in 1979. Like most beauty queens, she later joined show business and became a mainstay of the television sitcom, "Chicks to Chicks." Her signature comedy was the contrast between her sexy looks and mali-mali way with the Filipino language. In fact, Carlson was better known as "Si ako, si ikaw," for the way her sitcom character spoke. Carlson also went on to do movies and starred with the likes of action king Fernando Poe Jr. and ace comedian Dolphy.
On Thursday night, young actress Gladys Reyes received several messages from Carlson. One of the messages read, "Help me, Im dying. My house is burning." Carlson sent Reyes a number, which she asked the latter to call. However, when Reyes dialed it, the number turned out to be that of a Malacanang telephone. Reyes later asked Carlsons show business friend, Carmi Martin, to call up Carlson. Martin and Carlson co-starred in "Chicks to Chicks." But when Martin called up Platinum Condominium, a security guard told her there was no fire in the building.
Former Miss International Melanie Marquez, who won in the Binibining Pilipinas pageant the same year as Carlson, remembers the latter as very sweet, thoughtful and malambing. "We were roommates during the pageant and she was fun to be with, always smiling, always happy, very cariosa and never troublesome," Marquez told the INQUIRER. She added: "Years later, whenever we would see each other, Teresa would always embrace me and tell me we look(ed) alike."
Kalakasan's relationship with Carlson began in 1993 when she made anonymous phone calls to its hotline. Over the next three years, Kalakasan helped Carlson seek safe shelter but Farias always managed to find her. An escape try was hatched in October 1996, when Carlson was about to give birth to her fourth child, but it failed. Sarabia didn't hear of her again until she was awakened Friday morning with text messages saying Carlson had leaped to her death.
Carlsons neighbors described the former actress as a lonely, troubled woman who was alternately sweet and rude to them and the administration staff of the residential condominium building. She jumped to her death yesterday from the air well of the 23rd floor of the building. Witnesses said Carlsons fall was broken when her body got stuck on a structure on the third floor of the building. She did not land on the parking lot, which is in the basement of the building. Residents of the building said Carlson had attempted to kill herself a few times in the past.
Although Carlson had been living in the building for almost 10 years, her neighbors said they only had a nodding acquaintance with the actress, who had gained a lot of weight since her sitcom days, when they saw her inside the elevator. The few who had been invited inside Carlsons unit said the actress flat was unkempt and that she had no food in her refrigerator. But Carlson was often a subject of speculation among the residents and the guards of the building, who said that they would sometimes hear her screams piercing through closed doors in the middle of the night.
Some said they felt sorry for her, especially after she came out in the media a few years ago with her revelation that she was a battered wife and was hooked on drugs. She eventually retracted her statements, but her neighbors said they would always recall the stories every time they heard her scream. Marquez said she had the chance to advise Carlson to leave Farias after news reports broke out that Carlson was a battered wife. "She was able to escape at that time and we had a chance to talk so I told her: if a man starts hitting you, there should be no more reason to still live with him, not even if you have kids," Marquez said. "She was like a sister to me. Its just so sad what happened to her. She really fell in love with that man."
Carlsons remains were flown to Laoag via Philippine Airlines at 12:30 p.m. Friday.
INQUIRER columnist Rina Jimenez-David had written on Oct. 19, 1996 about how Carlson returned once again to Farias after asking to be "rescued" by Kalakasan. In her column, David wrote about how a woman who did not want to give her identity started calling the Kalakasan hotline on domestic violence sometime in 1993. At first, she said, the Kalakasan counselors would hear nothing but sobbing and moaning. Months later, the woman began to tell of a "horrifying story of battering at the hands of her husband." She still refused to give her and her husband's name. It was in 1995 when she finally revealed that she was Carlson, wife of then Governor FFarias.
Kalakasan was only able to get in touch with Carlson's only known next-of-kin, her sister Gidget, and refer her to a lawyer when they learned she had flown to the US where the rest of her family lives.
Kalakasan, which stands for Kababaihan Laban sa Karahasan Foundation, thought she had finally won her freedom. But on Sept. 30, Carlson phoned to say she was in Manila and staying at the Farias building in Sampaloc and was about to give birth to her sixth child. She said her husband had gone to Ilocos and she was thinking of making her escape and would Kalakasan help her? Sarabia recalled that the first thing they did was look for a shelter. But The Haven, a women's crisis center run by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Alabang, turned them down. Sarabia told David that the DSWD had told them that "it is not possible for us at this time to get involved because her husband is a government official and The Haven is being run by the government." Sarabia recalled how they sought help from the Church, the media and the government, especially the office of then Sen. Leticia Shahani who was leaving for New York.
It was only Sr. Mary John Mananzan of St. Scholastica's College who agreed to give her shelter. But meantime, Carlson had second thoughts and suggested she might just wait after giving birth to escape. She however agreed to write a "letter of appeal" for help to Kalakasan, which some staffers posing as Carlson fans delivered to the Farias compound. Sarabia said they concocted various escape plans over the next few days but Carlson got cold feet and hesitated. On Oct. 10, 1996, a day before Farias was to return from Ilocos Norte, Carlson called up Kalakasan and said she would leave the building after everyone had gone to bed. Shortly after 11 p.m., she emerged from the building without being detected by guards who were distracted by a group of Kalakasan women who created a ruckus nearby as a diversion. Now safely in her hiding place, Carlson dismayed her rescuers when she called up her husband in Ilocos telling him not to bother looking for her "because I've left you." The following morning, Carlson got in touch with her stepfather and insisted on leaving the shelter by herself for an interview with GMA-7's Probe Team. After the interview, she insisted on being taken to the UST hospital to have her baby delivered by her old doctor. It was there that her husband found her.