UPLB coed’s slay suspect surrenders

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna, Philippines – Authorities now consider the robbery-slay of University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) student Maria Victoria Reyes solved with the surrender of the prime suspect yesterday.

Chief Superintendent James Melad, Calabarzon police director, told The STAR that he instructed Senior Superintendent Fausto Manzanilla, Laguna police director, to immediately bring the suspect, 19-year-old Benigno Nayle Jr., to the Biñan prosecutor’s office for inquest on the robbery with homicide case filed against him.

Melad said they have two witnesses against Nayle and that a third one would also surface to testify against him.

Manzanilla said Nayle was accompanied by his parents and relatives when he gave himself up to authorities at around noontime yesterday in Barangay Sambat, Tanauan City, Batangas.

He said Gonzalo Atienza, a former chairman of Barangay Sambat, facilitated Nayle’s surrender.

Manzanilla said Nayle had gone into hiding in the barangay after the crime until his parents sought the help of Atienza and the media.

Manzanilla said Nayle denied having a hand in the killing of Reyes, a UPLB third-year B.S. Agriculture student, claiming that he was asleep in his house when the crime was committed.

“Nayle’s alibi is not accepted. One of his defenses was that one of the two witnesses is his enemy,” Manzanilla said.

Manzanilla, however, said none of their witnesses was the one identified by Nayle as his “enemy.”

The two witnesses saw Nayle running away from the Reyes residence at Ferlins Subdivision in Barangay San Vicente, Biñan City with bloodstains on his T-shirt.

They said Nayle wore a baseball cap and carried a bag and was changing his shirt as he ran away.

Manzanilla said police were still trying to locate the laptop, camera and cell phone taken from Reyes when she was killed while alone in her home last Monday.

He, however, feared that the stolen gadgets could have been destroyed before Nayle decided to surrender. 

Nayle has pending derogatory records such as attempted homicide, malicious mischief, physical injuries and direct assault before the Biñan regional trial court.

Reyes was the third UPLB student slain by robbers since last year. The two others were third-year B.S. Computer Science student Given Grace Cebanico, 19, who was slain in Los Baños, and B.S. Agriculture student Ray Bernand Peñaranda.