UPLB exec assures campus safe, says rape incidents happened outside school

MANILA, Philippines – Three years to the month after a student of the University of the Philippines in Los Banos was raped and killed, a similar crime was committed Wednesday in the area where the first one happened.

Although the second victim, a 17-year-old whose identity is being withheld on the family’s request, survived, the question of how safe UPLB is has come to the fore.

University of the Philippines Los Baños campus PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM

Dr. Enrique Tolentino Jr., UPLB Vice Chancellor, allayed students’ fears by assuring the campus that strict security measures were being implemented even before another rape of a student happened Wednesday night.

Given Grace Cebanico was raped and killed on October 2011.

Tolentino clarified, however, that like the Cebanico case, Wednesday night’s incident happened outside the university premises.

Tolentino said security guards were constantly patrolling the university and lamposts were placed inside the campus to secure the more than 13, 000 students of UPLB.

“I always tell them (students) that security is everybody’s concern,” he said saying, students were always advised to be vigilant.

Tolentino said guidance counselors from the university have talked to the victim and described her as “feeble.”

He said the university would cooperate in the investigation, citing Laguna police are still following leads to identify the perpetrator based on eye witness accounts.

In March 2012, another UPLB student was stabbed to death near the university after being robbed by unidentified men.

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