Student, companion cleared of murder

DUMAGUETE City—The Regional Trial Court has cleared a theology student and his companion in the 2006 killing of a 30-year-old owner of a store along Cervantes Street in this city, in what some believed was a result of a fraternity war.

Judge Gerardo Paguio Jr. of the RTC Branch 41 acquitted Manuel Jarabe Jr. and Diego Beejay Bustalino after the prosecution failed to prove their guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

Jarabe, a fifth year theology student at Silliman University and Bustalino, a sophomore student of the Negros Oriental State University, were arrested and charged for murder over the killing of Francis John Perez on Nov. 3, 2006.

Perez was shot from behind by two gunmen as he was eating inside his store named K Star Foodhouse about 6 p.m.

Jarabe and Bustalino both claimed they were somewhere else at the time of the shooting.

Earlier news reports said Perez, a native of Mandaue City in Cebu, was a member of Tau Gamma fraternity and was facing a murder charge in Cebu for allegedly shooting a member of the Akrho, a rival fraternity.

Jarabe and Bustanillo were alleged to be members of the Akrho, although this angle about a fraternity war did not surface during the trial.—Alex Rey Pal, Inquirer Visayas