Murder case filed versus Gatungay slay suspects

CEBU – Murder charges were filed yesterday in court against the three suspects in the killing of a 19-year-old college student in barangay Punta Princesa late last month.

The Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office has indicted Rodney Arias, Dandreb Pradilla, and Mark Jeus Aquino and one still unidentified male accomplice in the murder of Gerry Giuseppe Gatungay. The suspects were not allowed to post bail.

The National Bureau of Investigation yesterday filed the complaint for murder against them following their arrest last week. The three were identified by a 15-year-old witness that the NBI got hold of last Thursday.

Arias, Pradilla, and Aquino were arrested separately in sitio Bulingit, barangay Mambaling and sitio Tuburan, barangay Punta Princesa, respectively.

The witness identified the three as the ones responsible for the killing of Gatungay on October 28 in Gansiang St., Punta Princesa.

The witness said they were drinking when Arias, armed with a knife, said that they will go somewhere. According to the witness, even without him knowing where they will be going, he volunteered to go with them.

The witness also said that there were five of them, one of whom is reportedly a friend of Arias whose name he did not even know, went to Gansiang St. where they saw a man coming from the corner of Bayabas St.

Upon seeing the man, Arias allegedly ordered to have the victim tailed. The witness said three of them, including him, acted as lookouts while Arias and Aquino ran after the man.

In his extra-judicial confession executed before lawyer Danilo Yap, the witness said that Arias and Aquino stabbed the victim, whom he later heard was Gatungay.

Gatungay reportedly tried to run towards Oliva St. but Aquino chased him and delivered another thrust. After the incident, they went back to Punta Princesa as if nothing had happened and went on with their drinking, the witness added.

Also, the witness said he knew Arias to be a user of rugby and a member of the Crips gang. Aquino, the witness added, is known in his neighborhood to be a drug dependent and a member also of another street gang, the Bloods. — Fred P. Languido/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)