BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – The main probe unit of the Police Office here has filed a charge for murder against two brothers who shot high school student Nicus Balagosa as his family buries him today as the country marks Independence Day.
Major Joery Puerto, chief of the city police Criminal Investigation and Detection Management Unit, told DNX the complaint for murder was filed before the City Prosecutor’s Office yesterday against five men, two of them brothers who attacked the Balagosa house Sunday night and shot Nicus inside the room of his parents.
The murder charge came after probers filed the other day an information for the alleged rape of a girl, 16, a case that has intertwined with the murder after Balagosa was shot by the girl’s father who thought he was the rapist.
Puerto said the two suspects, Paolo and Edgar (not their real names) were the ones named by the girl before Police Station 5 where she had the incident recorded on 1 June 2024, a day before Balagosa was shot.
Balagosa was not among those named by the girl.
Puerto said their probe could not also establish the extent of Balagosa’s participation in the alleged crime.
The Station 5 initial probe had earlier shown that the girl, Balagosa, and the two suspects, who all knew each other, were together in the same birthday party of a common friend last Thursday night before the early Friday morning rape in the same village.