No bail for TIP bomb suspects; raps filed

Charges of murder with frustrated murder were filed yesterday before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court against two brothers believed to be responsible in the Feb. 3 grenade explosion at the Technological Institute of the Philippines which resulted in the killing of a student and injuring 44 others.

Quezon City Inquest Division chief Elmo Alameda recommended no bail for the two accused identified as Reynhiland Ringor Barro, 21, and his brother Roosevelt, 18. They are the sons of Lt. Col. Reynaldo Ringo Barro, assigned with the 4th RCDG Army Reserve Command in Camp Eldridge, Los Baños, Laguna.

Alameda approved the recommendation of Inquest Prosecutor Edgar Santos to file the murder charges in court against the two brothers after ruling that enough evidence exists against them.

The Barro brothers were nabbed by the operatives of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Central Police District Monday night in their house at 33 Atis Street, Barangay Napico in Pasig City. Both listed their residential addresses at Ibaba, Calapan, Oriental Mindoro.

They are now detained at the CID detention cell in Camp Tomas Karingal, Sikatuna Village, Quezon City. Also charged were Ildefonso Magbujos and one John Doe.

The police said other TIP students who survived the bomb attack were able to identify the Barro brothers as responsible for the grenade attack.

During a confrontation at the police headquarters, witnesses Amorlito Pablo and Olivar Comilang, both TIP students, positively identified Reynhiland as the grenade thrower while his brother and the two others acted as lookouts.

Police theorized that the Barro brothers could have acquired the grenade through their father's connections with the Army. Roosevelt is currently in his second year in college taking up Electrical Engineering while his elder brother is in his junior year enrolled in Marine Engineering.

The police said Reynhiland and Romualdo Taguba, one of those injured, are classmates. Investigators learned that the conflict stemmed from the long-standing feud between Taguba and the Barro brothers since November last year.

Taguba and a certain Jose Tomas, both of the Samahang Ilocano group, figured in a brawl Nov. 16 with members of the Batangas Varsitarian, which had since allied with the Samahang Visaya.

In that incident, Roosevelt was mauled by Taguba and Tomas. The incident was recorded in the blotter of the Cubao police station.

The tension between the rival groups heightened until another brawl happened on the eve of the grenade explosion which killed 22-year-old Dhian Rey Navarro.

Before his death, Navarro was elected as president of the Confederation of Fraternities and Sororities in TIP.

Navarro's father, Diosdado, said he was happy over the arrest of the two suspects. "It is good that the perpetrators have been arrested," he said.

Mayor Ismael Mathay and National Capital Regional Police Office director Chief Superintendent Edgar Aglipay lauded the Central Police District Police Office for the "job well done."