(Eagle News) — The medical technologist who supposedly found Horacio Castillo III’s body on a street in Manila is now considered a “person of interest” by police, after officials of the barangay where he claimed to have found the University of Sto. Tomas law student’s body denied a body had indeed been found there.
Supt. Erwin Margarejo, Manila Police District spokesperson, said it was officials themselves of Barangay 133 who issued a statement disputing John Paul Solano’s account.
In his initial statement to police, Solano, also a UST student, said he found Castillo’s body wrapped in a blanket at the corner of H. Lopez Boulevard and Infanta St. in Tondo, at 7:5o a.m. on Sunday.
He said he then flagged down a vehicle to help him bring the 22-year-old victim to the Chinese General Hospital.
Clarify the issue, or face perjury charges, Margarejo said.
5 other persons of interest
According to Margarejo, police are also looking for five other “persons of interest” so they could shed light into what happened during Aegis Juris “welcoming rites” believed to have been performed in the fraternity’s library in the UST campus, and where Castillo was believed to have undergone hazing rites.
Margarejo, however, refused to reveal the identities of the other “persons of interest.”
He said the police were coordinating with university authorities so they could get a list of members of the fraternity, which has since deactivated its Facebook page.
According to Margarejo, it was difficult to locate members of the fraternity and talk to them because of the directive of UST Civil Law dean Nilo Divina for the fraternity’s members to be placed under preventive suspension, and thus be barred from the campus of the Faculty of Civil Law, and from attending classes.
Divina is a prominent member of the Aegis Juris fraternity.
But in a statement, Divina said this was “not true.”
“The fact that they are under preventive suspension does not mean they cannot be subpoenaed,” Divina said.