DepEd starts probe of teacher’s killing in rape attempt
SLAIN IN SCHOOL Mylene Durante, the 23-year-old teacher in Pio Duran, Albay, who was killed in a rape attempt inside the school. —PHOTO FROM MYLENE DURANTE’S FB PAGE
LEGAZPI CITY — The killing of Mylene Durante, a 23-year-old elementary public school teacher, in an alleged rape attempt in Pio Duran town in Albay province has prompted the Department of Education (DepEd) in Bicol to plan an inventory of teachers using school facilities as living quarters.
Gilbert Sadsad, DepEd regional director, said on Thursday that the inventory would be submitted to village chiefs for them to provide security to transient teachers.
Save money
Durante was stabbed to death inside the principal’s office in Oringon Elementary School at the village of Oringo in Pio Duran.
Senior Insp. Joseph Abel Jarabejo, Pio Duran police chief, said in a previous interview that Durante had been 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.
Two Grade 6 students, who lived in Oringo, had volunteered to keep Durante company at night.
The students were wounded in the attack on Durante allegedly by a Grade 12 (not Grade 8 as earlier reported) student.
The assailant was identified by the two Grade 6 students who witnessed the attack.
Sadsad said he had asked the Philippine National Police to provide security to the two child witnesses.
Trauma
He said the DepEd would also conduct a fact-finding investigation and provide help to teachers and students traumatized by the killing.
SPO1 Jigger Bas, Pio Duran police investigator, said on Thursday that the 17-year-old Grade 12 student, who had been taken into custody as a “person of interest,” was now the main suspect in the killing and faced murder and frustrated murder charges.
Bas said the teenager was subjected to inquest proceeding on Thursday.
The suspect is in police custody.
Adult soon
Bas said the suspect would turn 18 in November, which meant he would then be an adult.
“We have to leave it to the court to decide where he would be detained while awaiting the court ruling,” he said.
Bas, in a phone interview, said investigation revealed that the suspect, who lived beside Oringon Elementary School, had a crush on Durante who had been teaching there for two years.
Investigators recovered a 6-inch knife believed to have been used by the suspect in killing Durante. —WITH A REPORT FROM REY ANTHONY OSTRIA
