“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” wrote the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy in his monumental novel, Anna Karenina. Businessman and basketball aficionado James Co and wife Cindy Bunani-Co, if family pictures and testimonies by those who were dearest to them were proofs of happiness, then the best way to describe the couple is that they belonged to most people's definition of a happy family.

But is there specter of darkness lurking behind every happy family?

For all the things we've heard about James, the father who shot to death his wife and two kids before he shot himself inside their burning car at Dampas District, this city, no one has a more lucid idea as to who really James was than the couple's helper, who has been their daily house companion for a decade until the day they died. In the mind of Baby Jean Lapot, 23, the couple's helper during the last ten years, there was nothing in the demeanor, gesture, or spoken words of James that would portent of a looming tragedy. “Normal ra man kaayo pagkabuntag. Ningmata sila ug sayo. Namahaw pagka-alas siete. Nagkataw-anay pa sila. Nag-estoryahanay. Wala may lalis o away,” recalled Baby Jean of the fateful Tuesday (January 28) when she last saw her masters.

Even in the previous days, Baby Jean did not notice of any family squabble, or of any sign of serious problems that the two were facing. In one phrase, Baby Jean, who hails from Dumaguete City, which is 45 kilometers from Bais City, Negros Oriental, where James was born, has described the couple as one “happy family.” As a happy family, she recounted, the couple were often seen watching Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) games. “They were both rooting for San Mig Coffee,” Baby Jean said in Bisaya, referring to the Tim Cone-guided PBA team, which is currently clashing with Ginebra in a best-of-seven semi-final series. “Mag-uban sila manimba. Mag-uban sila mag-grocery. Mag-uban panan-aw ug sine. Mag-uban manuroy,” Baby Jean said. In fact in the morning of January 28, Baby Jean thought it as just one ordinary activity for the couple to leave their home located at Estaca Road, Penaflor, this city, with their two kids, James Martin (10 years old) and James Andre (5 years old), who were all studying at Bohol Wisdom School (BWS). The house help was informed by James that they would be out for that day to do some “collection” (they had been engaged in lending business for the last three years), and after which, they planned to have lunch at Jollibee. But Baby Jean prodded her masters not to take the kids out because they were sick on that day, the very reason why they were not in school on January 28. “Ako giingnan si Sir nga dili lang dad-on ang mga bata sa gawas kay gihilantan,” she recalled. She was told by James that there was nothing to worry about the kids going out of the house even when sick.

THE MOTHER'S TALE

Narcisa Co, 75, mother of James who lives in Bais City, agreeing to an exclusive interview, told the Bohol Sunday Post that in the morning of January 28 she was still able to talk to her two precious grandkids over the phone. “Wa gyud ko magdahom nga mao toy mahitabo,” Narcisa said, her tears then rolled down her face when the interview started. She remembered James as a good son, who never got into trouble during his high school and college years, or even during his elementary years. Leaving Bais City when he was in the fifth grade, James finished his elementary and high school education at Samantabadhra Institute, a premier Chinese-run school in Cebu City. At Bohol Institute of Technology (BIT) James pursued college and obtained a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM). After college he had been known in the city as a consistent patron of basketball games. He once managed his own basketball team.

James did not speak to her mother on the day he dialed the phone so that his two sons could talk to their grandmother, whose husband, Bing Tiao Co, used to be the principal of the then Bohol Chinese School (now Bohol Wisdom School). James's father passed away in 2003. “Happy man ang mga bata. Ako silang gipangumusta sa ilang kahimtang, ok man,” Narcisa recalled. She knew it was James who dialed the phone so that James Martin and James Andre could talk to their grandmother, who later learned it was the last moment she would hear the jolly voices of her grandchildren. At first she was wondering why the kids were at home when Tuesday was supposed to be a school day and not a holiday. Days before and even until January 28, Narcisa did not have any premonition of a gruesome incident that would befall her family. But she remembered her grandchildren who were always asking her when she would visit Bohol.

On the day James shot his wife and two sons and took his own life while their family car was burning (set on fire by James himself) at a secluded road in Dampas, this city, at around 11 a.m., in the afternoon Narcisa, after receiving a call from her daughter who also lives in Bohol, took a boat to Tagbilaran, expecting she would be reunited with her son and grandchildren. “Giingnan ko sa akong anak babaye nga paarion ko sa Bohol kay naay asikasohon,” she said. But the message of her daughter was coursed through Narcisa's brother, James's uncle, in Bais City. Narcisa was at her house in Bais City when she got an urgent message to go to Bohol. She said that she had no idea whether James had financial trouble owing to his lending business, which is registered as Tian Su n Sons Lending Corporation. Its office is located just behind James's house at Penaflor. “He was just an ordinary guy who had a lot of friends,” the mother spoke of James in Bisaya. “Daghang amigo sa basketball. Bisan asa to sila dula.” She stressed that James had no history of any violent acts whether at home or at school, a fact supported by Baby Jean. “Walay away. Wala ko kadungog nga naay problema nila. Walay kontra,” Baby Jean attested. “Kalmado ra man kaayo to si Sir.”

A day before the family suicide took place and shocked Boholanos here and abroad, there was one problem that James and Cindy had to fix the day before they perished inside their charred car: the bullying at Bohol Wisdom School. According to Baby Jean, James and Cindy went to BWS on January 27 to complain of the intense bullying James Andre (grade 4 at BWS) had been experiencing at the hands of his classmates. Both Narcisa and Baby Jean pointed out that James was living a clean life, meaning he was not into gambling, smoking, or drinking. That's why it pained them so much for some people to speculate that James was allegedly “high on drugs” when he committed an unthinkable crime because James was more of a homebody type of man. Basketball was James's sole passion, aside from his penchant for business ventures. He used to own the Tagbilaran General Merchandise (TGM). According to their house help, James was on a daily medication for his diabetes problem, a disease already embedded in his genes when he was born. Asked whether diabetes had bothered James, the house help ruled out this as a problem.

During the interview it was not mentioned by Baby Jean and Narcisa whether it was true that James had injured his head during a basketball game, an injury theorized by many as the underlying cause of his changed persona. Baby noted that she did not hear of any report that her master's lending business was sailing on rough seas. And if there was any problem, James was often seen with his copy of the Bible placed on top of his office table. He was a man who was seen as a loving father. According to parents at Bohol Wisdom, James was often seen fetching his sons at school. On Sundays he was often seen with his wife and sons going to church together. In the end, the family that prayed together died together. In all appearances, James Co and Cindy Bonani-Co's union, blessed with two healthy sons, was a picture perfect of a happy family. Even on the day when James and Cindy left their house at 10:15 a.m. last Tuesday, tagging along their sons, everything had appeared “normal and ordinary.” But according to reports, James had left a subtle suicide note in his house, which was found out later, and another note was given to St. Peter, a funeral service firm.

“My death is not a (sic) regret. Now I see the price to pay which I cannot afford to run and hide,” a note allegedly bearing James's signature said so. The suicide note somehow provided the underpinning of the gruesome crime, which has never been seen even on movies, thus it had defied the imaginations of Hollywood filmmakers, or in the case of Philippine movie industry, it would not enter into the mind of director Carlo Caparas. Also the note had convinced investigators that the murder and suicide was premeditated, and certainly not a product of any impulses of an emotionally unstable person. But who can tell? Narcisa said she would no longer pursue further investigation whether there was a foul play behind the death of her son, her daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. But one thing she appealed to the public: that they would stop insinuating as to what had prodded her son to commit the murder and suicide.

“Let them rest in peace,” the mother appealed to the public. Whatever force that drove the father James to madness and killed his sons and wife, no one would know now what was brewing in the inner sanctum of James's heart and mind. No one could tell what really had happened minutes before their bodies were found lifeless and charred. Only James could tell. But he is forever gone, leaving without explanations. “Sakit kaayo dili pa namo madawat ang nahitabo. Wala gyud mi magtoo nga mao toy mahitabo,” lamented Baby Jean, as the Post's interview was winding down. “Dili na ko makakita ug amo nga ing-adto ka but-an. Bisag unsay ilang blessing, gina-share namo. Giisip nako nila nga part sa pamilya,” said Baby Jean, who, like James's mother, is still in a state of total shock and disbelief over a family tragedy that would forever be remembered in history books. (MIKE ORTEGA LIGALIG)