ILOILO City – Police were still trying to determine the motive in the fatal stabbing of a freshman criminology student in San Enrique, Iloilo.
A rumble at the public plaza of the town left the 19-year-old Eric Cortes with stab wounds on the lower back and chest.
Cortes, a resident of Barangay Aglalana, Passi City, was taken to the district hospital in the component city, where he was pronounced “dead on arrival.”
Police arrested five suspects, all residents of Barangay Campo, San Enrique.
Senior Inspector Fernando Punzalan Jr., San Enrique police chief, identified them as Robert Villacampa, 18, Anthony Denaja, 19, Louie Jay Cerbo, 20, Joseph Lara, 34, and Guilbert Peñaflor, 36.
Two other suspects managed to escape, Punzalan said without disclosing names. Police were hunting for them, he said.
Cortes, a criminology student of Passi City College and a dancer, was eating with fellow dancers in a restaurant at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 19 when the rumble happened.
Police have yet to establish the motive as of this writing.
“Witnesses tagged Cerbo as the one who stabbed the victim,” said Punzalan.
“Baka na-tripan lang siya kasi dancer itong victim na sumayaw lang sa isang Christmas celebration,” the police official added./PN
