Brains in murder of UST stude hunted

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents are tracking down the mastermind in the kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old University of Sto. Tomas (UST) student Mark Chua.

Edmund Arugay, NBI Special Action Unit chief, told reporters yesterday he is confident the arrest of brothers Jeoffrey and Genesis Binagatan, the principal suspects, will lead his men to the mastermind.

"We are confident that one of them (Binagatans) will crack and will help us identify the mastermind," Arugay said.

He said the Binagatan brothers were arrested in their house at the corner of Cavite and Elias streets in Sta. Cruz, Manila at about 11 a.m. last Wednesday.

Witnesses told NBI agents they saw the brothers with four other suspects dump Chua’s body into the Pasig River on the night of March 15.

Three days later, Chua’s body was found floating in the river behind the Bureau of Immigration building in Manila. The body was wrapped in a brown carpet, hands tied with a shoelace. Chua’s head and feet were bound with masking tape.

Relatives said Chua was kidnapped and killed after he exposed alleged anomalies in the Reserved Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) at UST.

Chua, who was a cadet officer, was said to have revealed everything in an interview with a reporter of The Varsitarian, the UST campus newspaper.

On December last year, Chua accused officials of the UST Department of Military Science and Tactics of receiving bribes and extorting money from cadets.

Chua later filed a complaint with the Department of National Defense, and UST-ROTC commandant Maj. Demy Tejares and other officials were relieved. – Mike Frialde