After two months of being a fugitive from the law, murder suspect Jason Ivler was finally arrested yesterday, January 18, at his mother’s Blue Ridge A Subdivision home. The stepson of ADB British Economist Stephen Pollard—and nephew of folk singer Freddie Aguilar—was taken into police custody after an exchange of gunfire he initiated with the NBI special unit left him seriously injured, according to ABS-CBN News. Ivler’s mother Marlene (Aguilar’s sister) appears to have successfully hidden her son in a storage room, which authorities had missed even after two previous raids on her house.
Ivler is the prime suspect in the November 18 road rage slaying of Renato Victor Ebarle, son of Presidential Chief of Staff Renato Ebarle, Sr., as reported by Spot.ph. Witness accounts place a 25- to 30-year-old Caucasian man, about 5’8”, with a shaved head and an arm tattoo at the scene of the crime. After a near collision with the victim, the suspect apparently stepped out of his blue Honda CRV and shot the 27-year-old Ebarle three times at close range through the latter’s windshield. Authorities were able to match the suspect’s diplomatic plate number to stepfather Pollard’s vehicle, and Ivler has been on the run ever since.
Up until her son’s arrest on Sunday, Marlene Aguilar-Pollard strongly denied that Ivler was taking refuge in her home. The ABS-CBN News report notes that she even told the authorities of an email from her son claiming he had fled to America. Now, the mother of three could face charges for harboring an offender classified as “armed and dangerous” and whose name even appears on the Interpol Red Notice List. According to DZMM, Marlene is currently at an NBI facility for questioning, on the grounds of “obstruction of justice.”
A distraught Marlene Aguilar-Pollard appears in a QTV interview.
(Source: QTV )
In such a situation, a mother’s responsibility puts her in a quandary. Does she turn over her child to the authorities, who may very well put him behind bars for the rest of his life—or does she go with her defensive instincts and shield her child from harm (even if he is guilty)? A recent update from Spot.ph shows an anguished Marlene in an interview on QTV’s Balitanghali, tearfully telling the world, “I want everyone to know that no matter what my son did, I love him with all my heart and soul.”
Manila Standard Today columnist Connie Veneracion, in a piece entitled “Wrong love and the spoiled brat,” notes that protecting your child in such situations may be counterproductive. She says, “A child who never learns to face the consequences of his actions often turns into an adult like Jason Ivler—he doesn’t know there are limits because he feels that his parents will always be there to take care of the bad consequences.” Being overprotective of a young child may not be the best thing to do as a parent—what more the case of harboring a fugitive from the law, and consequently being charged for obstruction of justice, as Marlene did? Would you have done things differently? Share your stand by voting in our poll!
