Suspect in death of teacher nabbed

By Mar S. Arguelles LEGAZPI CITY --- Police operatives nabbed on Wednesday (Oct. 10) morning a Grade 8 elementary pupil as person of interest in the stabbing to death of a 23-year-old public elementary teacher and the wounding of two elementary pupils on Tuesday night at the Oringon Public Elementary School in Barangay Oringon, an upland village in Pioduran, Albay, police report said. The suspect who is a 17-year-old junior high school student was arrested by police operatives at the vicinity of the crime scene in Barangay Oringon, at around 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, according to Senior Police Officer 1 Jigger Bas, case investigator of the Pioduran police station. The suspect was positively identified by the two children who were with the victim at the time when the crime was committed, Bas told the Bicol Mail in a phone interview. When asked what the motive behind the killing was, Bas said so far they are still determining the cause that drove the suspect to kill the victim. Bas said they are still looking into a possible rape angle after police investigators found that the victim’s shorts was unzipped. According to Bas, the suspect is a student at the Binudigahan National High School in Pioduran, a coastal town in Albay. Police Senior Inspector Joseph Abel Jarabejo reported that Mylene Durante, a 23-year-old teacher was stabbed to death at the Oringon Elementary School in Pioduran at around 11:00 p.m. Tuesday. Jarabejo said the suspect could have entered the Principal Office being used as sleeping quarters of the victim including the two elementary grade pupils who were at the time sleeping. The victim was accompanied by two Grade 6 pupils of the school who were from the same village that the teacher came from. Investigators Jarabejo said that investigators discovered signs of struggle inside the room. Police investigators found the victim’s body a few meters away from the principal office. The report said the victim sustained several fatal stab wounds while the two child companion also sustained minor wounds and were rushed for medical treatment at the Pioduran Memorial District Hospital. The victim had been allowed to use the Principal office as her quarters since she was a resident of Polangui town, Jarabejo said. Barangay Oringon where the school is located is a remote upland village of Pioduran where the only mode of transportation is either by walking or the “habal-habal” motorcycle.