Cops eye robbery motive in murder of Grade 10 student in Moalboal

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police are focusing on robbery as the possible motive on the July 4 murder of a Grade 10 student in Moalboal, a town in southwestern Cebu.

Aside from that, they had also identified a person of interest in the killing of  21-year-old Harriz bell Olivo, who was found dead on the morning of July 4 in Sitio Banilad, Barangay Tomonoy, said Police Corporal Dennis Sun, Moalboal Police Station investigator.

Sun told CDN Digital in a phone interview that five witnesses claimed they saw three men including the identified person of interest with Olivo a few hours before he was found dead.

Sun said that they were focusing on robbery as a possible motive in the crime  because the cellphone, which Olivo had with him before he was found dead, was missing.

The body of Olivo, whose head was allegedly bashed with a hammer, was found in a pathway under the coconut trees in Sitio Banilad on July 4.

Sun said a hammer, which was believed to be the weapon used to kill Olivo, was found near the area where his body was found.

Olivo’s killing were among three incidents since the start of the month involving attacks on students and a teacher. On July 1, or at least 3 days before Olivo was killed, a 22-year-old Grade 10 student was stabbed and wounded as he was on his way home from night classes in Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City.

Read more: Student stabbed while on his way home in Barangay Guadalupe

Then a day after Olivo was killed or at past 7 p.m. on July 5, a public school teacher was killed by a motorcycle-riding gunman in Barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City.

The teacher was on his way home from school and was in front of his boarding house when he was shot by an unidentified assailant. He was brought to the hospital where he later died.

Read more: Mactan attack: Teacher, shot in front of boarding house, dies in hospital

Meanwhile in the Moalboal killing, Sun said that they also found out that the person of interest in the murder of Olivo had several robbery complaints in the barangay level.

He, however, said that these complaints were perhaps resolved in the barangay level and did not reach the police station.

He also said that they could not yet reveal the name of the person of interest since they had yet to find out if he had had a hand in the killing./dbs