5 boys kill teen after dawn Mass

MANILA, Philippines - Five boys were arrested yesterday for allegedly killing a 16-year-old student when he stepped out of a church after attending dawn Mass in Tondo, Manila Wednesday.

Churchgoers blamed policemen for not patrolling the area, which emboldened youth gangs into attacking each other.  

Witnesses said the five boys, aged 14 and 15, were among those who attacked Nicole Kith Franco, who was rushed by his friends to the Mary Johnston Hospital with a knife still embedded in his back. The victim died while being treated, said Senior Inspector Joey de Ocampo, who heads the homicide section of the Manila Police District (MPD).

De Ocampo said prior to Wednesday’s killing, Franco’s friend, Mark Hunter de la Cruz, was attacked by a gang of youths after he attended the first dawn Mass of the season on Friday.

Franco’s group met the same gang after attending Wednesday’s dawn Mass, triggering a melee. Witnesses said Franco was cornered and stabbed in the back by a member one of their rival group.

The boys denied stabbing Franco, claiming it was Raymond Ignacio, 19, who did it. They said Ignacio boasted that the boy he had stabbed had died.

“The act of one is the act of all. The five minors were identified by witnesses as among the group who chased and beat up the victim. We will charge all of them with murder and it is up to the court to determine their liability,” De Ocampo said.

Police officers said the mothers of the five boys went to the police station to present the boys’ birth certificates and invoke the juvenile justice law to have their sons released into their custody.

The boys are being held in the homicide section’s detention facility at the MPD headquarters.

The area where Franco was attacked is under the jurisdiction of Rajabago police station chief Superintendent Rolando Tumalad.