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By NITZ ARANCON
with LITO RULONA
Correspondents

POLICE are set on filing charges today against five suspects in the stabbing death of an education student of the Southern Philippines College before the City Prosecutor’s Office.

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Divisoria police chief Senior Insp. Maricris  Mulat said they would file a complaint for rape with homicide against the suspects identified as Warren Amarga, Joan Escalante, Angel Mae Narigua, Joel Jonson, and a minor.

Police said the suspects were arrested in their hideout in Zayas, Upper Carmen, at around 5 am Saturday, hours after the 30-year student, Cherrymae Dayo, was allegedly raped and then stabbed in a house on JR Borja St. near Burgos St..

Dayo, who was from San Juan, Balingasag, Misamis Oriental, was a taking up an education course at SPC. Police said she was attacked inside the house of the late former councilor Mending Balinado at around 10:20 pm, and succumbed to four stab wounds at the Northern Mindanao Medical Center at around 12:43 am Saturday. She was declared dead by physician Sergio Angelito Orjausa.

Dr. Orjausa said there were indications that Dayo, who was rushed to the NMMC without underwear, was sexually abused. The victim only had her nightdress on.

Dr. Christian Caballes, chief of the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) here, said Dayo died due to the stab to the chest–the knife pierced through a lung.

“Middle lobe of her right lungs ang tama… about two centimeters. Napuno ng kanyang dugo ang kanyang chest region kaya siya namatay dahil hindi na siya nakahinga,” he said.

Of the five suspects, only the 24-year old Amarga of Bakahan Compound on Villarin St. in Carmen, confessed to stabbing the house caretaker but he denied that the victim was raped.

The four other suspects–Escalante, 18; Rada, 22; Jonson, 22, and the minor–strongly denied any involvement in the attack on Dayo.

Senior Insp. Mulat said the police would provide prosecutors the information about the Dayo case, and leave legal matters in their hands.

Mulat said investigators were convinced that the suspects conspired with Amarga who sneaked into the Balinado house allegedly to steal. But instead of just burglarizing the house, Mulat said Amarga allegedly sexually abused Dayo, who was alone in the house at that time, before stabbing her to the chest, abdomen, arms and back.

Police said they seized from the suspects a 15-inch knife believed to be the murder weapon.

Amarga said his plan was just to steal rice.

“Wala man ko mo-agi sa bintana. Abli na ang iyang pultahan. Misulod ko. Ang akong mga kauban na-a sila sa gawas,” he said.

Police said a wounded Dayo managed to run out of the house to cry for help. She collapsed on the street.

By the time the police arrived at the crime scene, Dayo was already rushed to the hospital by a city hall rescue team.

Jonson, one of the suspects, said he was with Amarga and the other suspects in the Divisoria area where they had a drinking session earlier.

“Human namog inom, nagbulag-bulag nami. Wala mi masayod nga iya (Amarga) diay nga gisulod-an ang balay anang biktima,” said Jonson, a self-confessed member of the Batang Mindanao 29 gang and a former inmate.

Barangay 7 councilor Araleigh Velez said the suspects are known “rugby boys” and “rugby girls” (solvent sniffers) in the neighborhood.

Investigators said some of Dayo’s wounds suggest that she tried to fight back.

The Scene of Crime Operatives said there were signs that Dayo’s killer came in through a window near an airconditioning unit. In the room where Dayo was attacked, there were footprints on the bedsheet and bloodstains. On the bed was Dayo’s panty.

Police said there were also bloodstains on the floor of the victim’s room.

Investigators noted that the victim’s personal things were intact.

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