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Pa of slain UST student
seeks help of witnesses
By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer News
Service
RELATED
STORIES:
ROTC
corruption exposé may have led to slay of UST student (March 25,
2001) | Cops drop
kidnap-for-ransom angle in UST student’s slay (March 24, 2001)
"PLEASE come
out, especially those who saw my son from the afternoon till the
late evening of March 15."
Businessman
Welson Chua, during the wake of his slain son Mark Welson Chua
Saturday night, was appealing to witnesses to his son’s abduction to
come out and help solve the young man’s gruesome murder last
week.
The father said
the witnesses, believed to be mostly UST students also, would be
crucial to the identification of his son’s killers, since police had
already dropped the kidnap-for-ransom angle in the case.
Before his
murder, Mark had exposed the allegedly rampant corruption in the UST
Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). He was a second year student
of mechanical engineering at UST.
Other ROTC
officers and cadets who, together with Mark, blew the whistle on the
alleged bribery, extortion, corruption and other irregularities in
the UST Department of Military Science and Tactics, have reportedly
gone into hiding fearing they would also suffer Mark’s
fate.
The UST
administration excused these students from the final examinations to
avoid jeopardizing their safety. School officials, however, remain
mum over the tragedy.
Mark’s
decomposing body was found on March 15 floating in the Pasig River,
under the Jones Bridge in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
The body was
wrapped in a carpet. Mark’s head was completely covered with packing
tape and his hands and feet were bound with shoelaces.
The older Chua
said he believes that his son was abducted between 5 p.m. and 10:30
p.m. on March 15.
He said he last
talked to his son at about 3:30 p.m. on the same day.
He said that at
10:16 p.m., he received a text message on his cellular phone from
Mark saying he was on his way to meet him in a Makati
restaurant.
"My brother and
I waited for more than an hour but Mark never came," Chua said in a
sad, hoarse voice.
He said that
hours later, Mark’s kidnappers phoned him saying his son was with
them.
He said they
demanded a P3-million ransom. After about two days, however, the
"negotiations" were aborted, Chua said.
This prompted
investigators from the Western Police District to discard the angle
that Mark was kidnapped for ransom.
The Chuas and
their friends are convinced that Mark was abducted and murdered
because of his exposé of the alleged ROTC corruption, which led to
the relief of UST-ROTC commandant Maj. Demy Tejares and his entire
staff.
Police are said
to be pursuing this angle.
"I think
everybody knows who did it," Chua said. "Those who know him,
especially his classmates, share the same belief."
Mark was buried
yesterday morning at the Everest Memorial Park in Memory Hills,
Susana Heights, Muntinlupa, Metro Manila. | 
Mon. Mar. 26, 2001, Philippines 
Pa of slain UST student seeks help of witnesses