3 more students charged over FEU attack

MANILA, Philippines - The Manila Police District (MPD) has filed frustrated murder charges against three more suspects in the stabbing of a University of Santo Tomas (UST) student in the Far Eastern University’s (FEU) campus in Manila last Oct. 2, an official said yesterday.

In a phone interview, Superintendent James Afalla, chief of the MPD Station 4, said they filed the charges with the Manila prosecutor’s office against students April Borromeo, Danica Suba and Danica Ortega.

He said the names were provided by FEU, which imposed a preventive suspension on the three students.

“Last week, we had a meeting with the FEU management. The school management was the one who gave the names based on the CCTV video,” Afalla told The Star.

The MPD earlier identified the suspect in the attack on UST student Joanne Lourdes Reyes as fourth year nursing student Christina Acosta.

The MPD has launched a manhunt for the four students.

In a separate phone interview with The Star, Albert Cabasada, FEU director of admissions and external relations, said the school has sent the four students letters telling them to come forward within 48 hours after receiving the letters or face expulsion.

“By Monday, we will know if they have received (the letters),” he said.

Reyes reportedly went to FEU to attend a film showing when she was pepper-sprayed in the face and stabbed about five to six times.

The incident was caught by the school’s surveillance camera.