Police nab accused in UST student’s slay

After almost four years in hiding, the accused in the murder of University of Santo Tomas (UST) engineering student Mark Chua has been arrested by police intelligence operatives in Cavite.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao presented Eduardo Tabrilla, 25, to the mediamen yesterday.

"This is a triumph of justice made possible by the perseverance, hard work and sacrifice of the intelligence tracker teams under Intelligence Group director Chief Superintendent Ismael Rafanan," Lomibao said.

Tabrilla was among the four principal accused in the murder of Chua, a mechanical engineer student, whose tortured body, wrapped with tape was found floating on the Pasig River in Intramuros, Manila last March 18, 2001.

By virtue of a warrant of arrest, Lomibao said Tabrilla was arrested by the Region 4 Intelligence Group at the Mabuhay Homes 2000 in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

Last year, co-accused Arnulfo Aparri Jr. was found guilty for Chua’s murder and sentenced to death . The court ordered the arrest of the remaining accused.

The PNP chief expressed optimism that they would arrest the two other accused — Paul Joseph Tan and Michael Von Rainard Manangbao. Both have standing warrants of arrest issued by a Manila judge.

Rafanan said follow-up operations are underway in Mindanao for the arrest of Tan, who is reportedly a nephew of a local politician. On the other hand, Manangbao, a son of a former police official in Nueva Ecija, left the country last Oct. 21 for the US.

Chua, then 19 years old, had exposed alleged bribery and corruption activities at the UST Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC), earning the ire of the officers of the training corps.

A witness said Aparri was among those who wrapped Chua’s body in a carpet on March 15, 2001. Three days later, his body was found and an autopsy revealed that he had died of suffocation.

Aparri surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation on Feb. 9, 2002 and identified Tabrilla, Tan and Manangbao, as the perpetrators of the crime.