UPLB coed stabbed dead by robbers in Biñan home

BIÑAN CITY, Philippines  – A 19-year-old coed of the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) was killed by suspected robbers in her home in Barangay San Vicente here last Monday, authorities said.

The victim, Maria Victoria Reyes, a third-year B.S. Agriculture student, was found dead in her bedroom with a stab wound below one of her breasts by her father Sixto at around 12:40 p.m. Monday.

Superintendent Leonard Luna, Biñan police chief, said the elder Reyes, a manager of a local funeral parlor, and his wife Candida, a teacher at the Carmona National High School, were not around when their daughter was slain at their home in Ferlins Subdivision.

Probers are eyeing robbery in the coed’s killing as her laptop, camera, cell phone and undetermined amount of cash were missing, Luna said.

Luna said there were no indications of forced entry in the Reyeses’ home.

“We are still investigating how many suspects are involved in Reyes’ killing, but we have already identified one of the robbers,” Luna told The STAR.

Luna was referring to one Benigno Nayle Jr., a resident of a neighboring subdivision who, according to witnesses, was scampering away from the Reyes residence with bloodstains on his T-shirt. Witnesses said Nayle wore a baseball cap and carried a bag, and was changing his shirt as he ran away.

Police are now hunting down Nayle who was not in his house when lawmen went there.

Luna said they were readying a case of robbery with homicide against Nayle.

Senior Superintendent Fausto Manzanilla, Laguna police director, said Gov. Jeorge Ejercito and Biñan Mayor Mylene Alonte have offered P200,000 each as reward for the arrest of Reyes’ killers.

Reyes was the third UPLB student killed in a robbery since last year.

The first victim was third-year B.S. Computer Science student Given Grace Cebanico, 19, who was slain in Los Baños town.

Her two assailants – security guard Lester Lopez Rivera and tricycle driver Percival de Guzman – are now locked up and are being tried for rape with homicide.

Cebanico’s body, found in a grassy lot in the UPLB compound, bore bullet and stab wounds in the back, her mouth was gagged with masking tape, and her hands were tied from behind.

Last March, 19-year-old UPLB B.S. Agriculture student Ray Bernard Peñaranda was killed by three suspected robbers who accosted him and two schoolmates while on their way home in Los Baños.

Three suspects – Carl Dactil de Guzman, Tyronne Terbio and Joseph Beltran – have been charged with robbery and murder.

In the same month, Peter Cruz, an Associate in Arts student of the UP Open University, was wounded when he put up a fight as two men tried to steal his laptop in his apartment in Los Baños. The case is still unsolved.