Photo of suspect in Mapua students’ killing released

Police released yesterday the photo of the prime suspect in the killing of two male students of the Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) in the hope that the public can share information on the whereabouts of the elusive suspect.

A seven-man team of police operatives have already scoured the known lairs of suspect Genesis Gabrielle Pongol in Quezon City and Cavite province but so far the searches had proved negative, according to Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr. who heads the homicide section of the Manila Police District.

Pongol, 20, a third year mechnical engineering student at Mapua, is being pointed to by several witnesses as the one who stabbed dead Jose Mari Villareal, 19, and Gino Raymundo, 21, on the night of March 15 near the Mapua campus in Intramuros.

Villareal and Raymundo were both Mapua students and members of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, while Pongol is the president of the Batangas Varsitarian fraternity of the same school. According to Arevalo, Pongol, who is known in the campus as “Kidlat,”  was ganged up by Tau Gamma members two days before he attacked the victims. Revenge is being eyed as the possible motive for the attack.

At least five Tau Gamma members, were reportedly on their way home following a drinking bout at the Aircon Grill along Magallanes street near Mapua when Pongol, with a fan knife in hand, attacked and fatally stabbed the two victims.

The two victims were declared dead on  arrival at the Seaman’s Hospital and Ospital ng Maynila for stab wounds in the chest and armpit.

At the same time, Arevalo thanked the school officials of Mapua for its cooperation in the ongoing investigation in the killings. It was the Mapua officials who furnished Arevalo with all pertinent information on Pongol after it was established that he was also a student in the same school.

Photos of Pongol were also posted at the Mapua campus informing students that he is the prime suspect in the killing of his schoolmates.