‘We’re lovers and I was never abducted’

ILOILO CITY — Was it simply passion or a "crime of passion"?

Annaliza Infante, 31, was arrested last Saturday on charges of kidnapping with serious illegal detention which the family of her lover, Edna Quizon, 34, has filed against her.

Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Region 6, carrying a warrant of arrest which Regional Trial Court Judge Merlin Deloria issued last July, found the two women at Bayview Hotel along Roxas Boulevard in Manila. They brought the two here aboard Air Philippines the same day.

At the tarmac of the Iloilo airport, however, Infante told reporters she was not kidnapped by Infante, who admitted she is a lesbian.

"We are lovers and I was never abducted or kidnapped by my Annaliza. We love each other and (we) went to Manila together," Quizon said just before kissing Infante on the lips to show reporters that the charges filed against her lover were untrue.

However, police separated the two women. Infante was brought to Camp Martin Delgado where she was detained. Quizon was dragged away by her father, Juanito Galanto, but she prostrated herself on the ground and refused to go with him.

Quizon is married to a seaman and has two children, aged seven and five. She told The STAR she has had enough of her husband’s behavior. This prompted her to live in with Infante in Manila, bringing her two children with her.

"My children even call (Annaliza) Daddy because they know how much we love each other," Quizon said.

Infante, on the other hand, said that when the two children grow up, they would explain to them what really transpired between their mother and her.

"She (Quizon) was so fed up and unsatisfied with her marriage. She did not even find real love with her husband," she told The STAR. "She found real love with me. It’s not that we are doing (anything immoral), we are in love and we are bound spiritually. She learned many good values from me."

The two women have been best friends since their elementary years. They have had a relationship for almost 10 years, Infante said.

Quizon said she is willing to marry Infante, who said she loves Quizon even if there is no chance of them being married, since they are both women.

Quizon was permitted by her father to see Infante at the CIDG office late Saturday night. To prove their love, the lovers passionately kissed twice in front of reporters.