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Sunday, March 25, 2001
09:06 PM ZE8
Thugs kill Chua before asking ransom
University of Santo Tomas (UST) student Mark
Wilson Chua was murdered even before his abductors asked for a ransom,
police said on Sunday.
Even as
police investigators established the time of death, the victim's family
also ruled out kidnapping-for-ransom but refused to name the possible
culprits.
As the body of Chua was
laid to rest on Sunday, the family belied the initial investigation made
by the police in saying that it was a simple kidnap-for-ransom case since
the abductors asked for P3-million ransom.
The victim's father claimed receiving a phone call from Mark's own
mobile phone on March 16, a day after the disappearance took place where
the kidnapper supposedly asked for the ransom and ordered them not to
report anything to the police.
The
Chua family, however, stood on their belief that the kidnappers will still
execute the victim even if they pay up the ransom.
Chua's body was found on March 18, floating in the Pasig
River near the Jones Bridge, three days after he was kidnapped.
This bolstered the theory that Chua
might have been killed the day he was kidnapped on March 15. Police said
it usually takes four days before dead bodies float on water, as in the
case of Chua.
Probers of the Western
Police District said Chua was identified through the dog tag necklace
found in the body, which was hogtied and covered with bandage like a
mummy, and sandwiched inside a galvanized iron sheet.
Chua's hands were tied with shoestring while his legs
were bound with medical bandage before he was tossed into the river,
probers said
Police said Chua, a
resident of LPL Mansions on Leviste Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City,
had apparently drowned as his body bore no external signs of physical
injury.
Probers are now focusing on
the possibility that Chua was kidnapped and murdered in retaliation for
revealing bribes some UST students paid to Reserve Officers Training Corps
(ROTC) officers for exemption from training.
Chua stirred controversy when he revealed the anomalies
to the campus paper, The
Varsitarian.
The Varsitarian
writer, Jayme Brucal, said Romulo Yumul, an engineering student,
corroborated Chua's exposé.
He said
this prompted school authorities to order the relief of ROTC commandant
Maj. Remy Tejares.
Probers learned
that Brucal himself is now hiding for fear of his
life.
School authorities refused to
give any statement regarding the issue.
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