OFFICIALS of the University of Santo Tomas are in a quandary as to whether to allow four of their students linked to the abduction and murder of engineering student Mark Welson Chua to attend Monday's opening of second-semester classes.

Chua's father Welson on Sunday said a UST official had proposed to bar from the school Michael Von Rainard Manangbao, Eduardo Tabrilla, Paul Joseph Tan, and Patrick Christopher Cruz pending the investigation of their alleged involvement in Chua's murder.

But the school administration would still have to conduct deliberations to determine if the four students would be prohibited from attending class for a specified period, a UST source told the INQUIRER.

The source said some officials favored their exclusion, saying the four young men's alleged involvement in the case had brought dishonor to UST.

Welson earlier urged school officials to ban the four to prevent them from threatening fellow cadet officers who testified against them.

Three witnesses, all members of the UST Reserve Officers Training Corps, had executed affidavits before the National Bureau of Investigation linking the four to the abduction and killing of Chua last March.

Chua was 19. He was also an ROTC cadet.

Welson last Friday told INQUIRER that one of the witnesses told him the witness and the suspects were part of a kidnap-for-ransom group formed two years ago. This group abducted and killed the younger Chua last March 15, Welson said, quoting the witness.

The slain cadet's father said UST officials had offered a home study program for the witnesses or to house them on campus during the semester for security reasons.

In their affidavits, the witnesses said that on the night Chua was abducted, they saw the suspects in the UST ROTC office conducting a supposed "initiation rite" on a man who was hog-tied and whose head was wrapped with packing tape.

Three days later, Chua's body was found floating in the Pasig River. His head was wrapped in packing tape. His hands and feet were tied with black shoelaces.

Chua was murdered after he exposed alleged anomalies in UST's ROTC program.

His revelations led to the relief of UST ROTC commandant Maj. Demy Tejares and his staff. It also triggered a campaign to abolish the student military program.