A mastermind and a hired killer were the principal characters behind the ill-fated murder Tuesday afternoon of a 15-year old high school student of Grace Christian School, this city. Interviewed during the morning radio program Cuentas Claras over Station DYTR Wednesday, Police Senior Supt. Constatino Paul Barot, Jr., Bohol police director, hinted that at least two persons were involved in the gruesome crime—a hired killer and the mastermind. Initial police investigation showed that the killing could just be another case of ordinary homicide perpetrated in this city by disgruntled elements. But ensuing probes indicated that there was more than meets the eye to the killing as many loose ends unraveled before the eyes of investigators.
In the same interview, Supt. Barot mentioned about the hired killer as the principal suspect while the mastermind was tagged as principal by inducement. Mecy Rose Onod, 15 of Loreto, Cortes town, was with an unidentified male companion Tuesday afternoon when a man armed with a 99 mm pistol shot her at close range. The gun man, wearing no face cover, shot the victim two times with one of the bullets' trajectory exiting through her back. The slay took place while the victim was about to board a tricycle at the corner of Benigno Aquino, Jr. and Lamdagan Sts., about a hundred meters from the city airport. She took two bullets in her body. The victim was immediately rushed to the Ramiro Community Hospital but expired hours later.
ATTEMPTED RAPE
As investigators considered several angles behind the slay, one lead pursued was a case for attempted rape filed against a certain Julius Hubac, a computer teacher of the Holy Infant Academy in Cortes. According to the victim's mother, Avelina, her daughter filed a case of attempted rape in relation to an incident where she was made to show her breast in front of the teacher. While the two were inside a locked room of the school, the suspect threatened the poor girl of reporting her drinking activity if she would not remove her bra to show her breast. Due to the threat, she opened the buttons of her blouse showing her bra to respondent who suddenly touched her breast. But the young girl did not take the amorous advances of the teacher sitting down. She filed a case for child abuse before the Provincial Prosecutor's Office but it was dismissed for lack of probable cause.
Mother and daughter filed a petition for review before the Department of Justice. More than a year since the case was elevated for review, the DOJ last Nov. 5 through Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III granted the petition for review and the assailed resolution of the Provincial Prosecutor's Office was reversed and set aside. Accordingly, the Provincial Prosecutor's Office was directed to cause the filing of information for acts of lasciviousness against respondent Julius Hubac and to report the action taken thereon within 10 days thereafter. In a radio interview, the mother Avelina, declared that the corresponding criminal complaint was already filed until the untimely demise of her daughter. COUNTER AFFIDAVIT
In his counter affidavit, Jubac denied the charge against him. He claimed that he never asked Lorelline Tumarao, one of the witnesses of the incident, to tell complainant to go to the computer room; the two of them did not go inside the computer room. According to the DOJ investigator, the fact that complainant and Lorelline Tumarao attended their English class and never went out of their class was confirmed by their English teacher, Jarius Fuderanan. In denying that he ever committed the offense charged, the respondent also claimed that at the time of the supposed incident, he attended the proofreading and editing of the proposed faculty manual at the principal's office and he was also directed to assign seatwork to his students.
KICKED OUT
As to the whereabouts of the suspect, it was gathered that following the tragic episode involving the school's former student, the priest-director kicked him out of the Cortes school apparently because of the rape attempt. He is now allegedly living with another woman, the mother said. She said she decided to transfer her daughter to the city, about ten kilometers from Cortes town, even if the school year was about to end because her daughter wanted to be away from the teacher.
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