2 key suspects in Los Baños killing now in police custody

MANILA, Philippines - The two key suspects in the killing of a third-year BS Agriculture student of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) are now in police custody.

Suspect Carl Dactil de Guzman, 26, did not put up a fight when cornered by Laguna policemen in Daraga, Albay yesterday afternoon.

“He (De Guzman) gave himself up peacefully. He and the police teams are now on their way back to the province which is a 10-hour drive,” said Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz, Laguna police director.

De Guzman was arrested in the house of one Sonny de Castro in Barangay Tagas, Daraga town at around 1:45 p.m. yesterday.

Senior Superintendent William Macavinta, Albay police director, said De Guzman, went to Albay last Wednesday along with his live-in partner, their child and his mother.

De Guzman was identified as the driver of a motorcycle whose back rider, Tyronne Kennedy Terbio, was the one who punched and stabbed 19-year-old UPLB student Ray Bernard Peñaranda in the chest last Sunday.

De Guzman is the cousin of tricycle driver Percival de Guzman, who was arrested along with a security guard for the rape-slay of another UP student, Given Grace Cebanico, late last year.

Terbio surrendered Thursday night to Philippine National Police chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome.

Cruz said a prosecutor from the Calamba prosecutors’ office recommended no bail for Terbio, who is now detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology detention center in Laguna.

Another suspect, Joseph Beltran, alias Zeppo, was arrested Monday. He admitted serving as the lookout in Peñaranda’s killing and pointed to De Guzman and Terbio as the principal suspects. – With Ed Amoroso, Celso Amo, Cet Demetera