Grade 8 boy held for killing of teacher

LEGAZPI CITY — Police arrested a Grade 8 student on Wednesday as a “person of interest” in the killing of a 23-year-old public school elementary teacher at Pio Duran town in Albay province.

The elementary public school teacher, Mylene Durante, 23, was stabbed to death inside the principal’s office of the school where she works around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, said Senior Insp. Joseph Abel Jarabejo, Pio Duran police chief.

Jarabejo said the suspect could have entered the principal’s office at the Oringon Elementary School in the village of Oringon while the teacher was asleep with two Grade 6 students.

Police investigators found the teacher’s body a few meters from the door of the principal’s office.

A police report said the victim suffered multiple fatal stab wounds while the two Grade 6 students suffered minor wounds.

Signs of struggle

Investigators also found signs of struggle inside the principal’s office, Jarabejo said.

Jarabejo said Durante was allowed by the school administration to use the office as her quarters to help her save money since she lived in Polangui town, which is some 44 kilometers from Pio Duran.

The two Grade 6 pupils, who were residents of the village, volunteered to also sleep at the principal’s office to keep her company at night.

The students were brought to the Pio Duran Memorial District Hospital to receive treatment.

By Wednesday around 10 a.m., police arrested a 17-year-old Grade 8 student for questioning on the killing of Durante.

The teenager was student of another school near the Oringon Elementary School.

Tagged by witnesses

The student was arrested at the vicinity of the crime scene after he was identified by the two child witnesses, said SPO1 Jigger Bas, investigator of the Pio Duran police.

Bas said investigators were still determining the motive for the killing.

They were looking at the possibility that the suspect had tried to rape the teacher after finding signs of sexual attack, like the victim’s shorts unzipped.

Oringon is a remote upland village in Pio Duran accessible only by foot or by “habal-habal” public transport.