The police are eyeing members of the alleged Samahang Bisaya fraternity as the suspects in last Thursday's grenade explosion at the Technological Institute of the Philippines in Quezon City, which resulted in the death of one student and the wounding of more than 40 others.
This developed as the police released sketches of three of the four or five suspects. Criminal Investigation Division head, Superintendent Napoleon Castro, said witnesses provided his investigators with the description of the suspects. A team of police agents are now tracking them down.
Police tallied the total number of victims at 44. They were treated at the Quezon City Medical Center, the Quirino Labor Hospital and the school's infirmary.
Police theorized that 22-year old Dhian Rey Navarro ( a male, not a female, as police earlier reported) was a victim of heated rivalry between two fraternities.
His relatives and friends said Navarro's group, the Samahang Ilocano, figured in a brawl last Wednesday night.
In affirming the fraternity war angle, Castro added that they have gathered reports that the rival group called in reinforcements from fraternity brothers from different places, since the Samahang Bisaya "protects" its members.
The grenade-thrower was described as about 30 years old, 5'4" to 5'7" tall, with heavy build, brown complexion, and pimples. Witnesses saw him standing near a vendor's store -- a few meters from the TIP gate -- prior to the explosion.
His companions, numbering from three to four, were overheard as saying "Adtu na, Adtu na! (Go now, go now)," before the first suspect lobbed the fragmentation grenade.
Navarro, a graduating mechanical engineering student, was recently elected president of the Confederation of Fraternities and Sororities at the TIP.
The group is an umbrella of registered fraternities and sororities, composed of 11 groups.
The 11 fraternities were identified as Samahang Ilocano, Genuine Ilocano, Alpha Phi Omega, Delta, Beta Sigma, Tau Gama, Akrho, Samahang Pangasinan, Montalban Society, Satuya-Ini Bicol Group (Sa Atin Ito) and the Samahan Bisaya, which has joined forces with the Batangas Varsitarian.
Navarro's job was to "mediate" between fraternity groups to avoid heated rivalries. Sources revealed that there are still several groups not registered with the confederation.
But Navarro was not involved in Wednesday's brawl. "We were at their house in Sikatuna last (Wednesday) night. He mentioned the incident to me only the next morning," said Navarro's girlfriend, Baby.
She recalled that Navarro escorted her out of the gate and asked her to go home minutes before the explosion. "He asked me not to turn my back since there were members of the rival group," Baby recalled. She learned only about the explosion when her friend informed her through the phone.
Police learned later that there was a tense atmosphere outside the campus, heightened by the presence of members of both Samahang Ilocano and Samahang Bisaya.
At the TIP, Samahang Ilocano has the biggest number of members, boasting of about 80 recruits this year. All the other fraternity groups had 10 to 15 members each.
Romualdo Taguba, 20, single, the master initiator of the Samahang Ilocano, disclosed that he was involved in the brawl with some members of the Batangas Varsitarians last Wednesday night.
When interviewed at his hospital bed, he surmised that the exchange of words that ensued between him and other members of the rival group last Thursday morning apparently led to the bloody attack in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the victim's father, Diosdado, threatened to sue TIP for his son's death. "They have failed in instilling discipline among their students," he said. The TIP management has not issued any official statement regarding the incident.