Mark Welson Chua (November 30, 1981 - March 18, 2001) was a

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

student of the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Miguel ...

whose death is widely believed to be linked to his exposé of alleged irregularities in the

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

unit of the university. His death became the catalyst for the passage of Republic Act 9163 or the "

National Service Training Program The National Service Training Program (NSTP) is a civic education and defense preparedness program students instituted by the Government of the Philippines on 23 July 2001 by virtue of Republic Act 9163, otherwise known as the "National Service Trai ...

Law", which removed completion of mandatory ROTC as a precondition for graduation for male college students in the

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Background

Chua took his elementary and high school education at Saint Jude Catholic School and his college education at the University of Santo Tomas. As a member of the ROTC unit's intelligence monitoring team, he had first-hand knowledge of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

within the organization, which he and another student, Romulo Yumol, divulged to UST's official student publication ''

The Varsitarian ''The Varsitarian'' (Varsi, The V, or V) is the official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas (UST). Founded in January 1928 by a group of students led by Jose Villa Panganiban, it is one of the first student newspapers in the Phi ...

'' in January 2001. This resulted in the relief of then-commandant Major Demy T Tejares and his staff.

Death

Chua received

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a deat ...

s after his revelations. The new ROTC commandant advised him to undergo security training at

Fort Bonifacio Fort Andres Bonifacio (formerly named Fort William McKinley) is the site of the national headquarters of the Philippine Army (Headquarters Philippine Army or HPA) located in Metro Manila, Philippines. It is located near the national headquarter ...

. On 15 March 2001, he was supposed to meet with an agent but he was never seen alive again. Three days later his decomposing body, wrapped in a carpet, was found floating in the

Pasig River The Pasig River ( fil, Ilog Pasig) is a water body in the Philippines that connects Laguna de Bay to Manila Bay. Stretching for , it bisects the Philippine capital of Manila and Metro Manila, its surrounding urban area into northern and souther ...

near the

Jones Bridge The William A. Jones Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the Jones Bridge, is an arched girder bridge that spans the Pasig River in the City of Manila, Philippines. It is named after the United States legislator William Atkinson Jones, who served ...

. His hands and feet were tied and his face wrapped in cloth and packing tape. The autopsy report showed that sludge was in his lungs, indicating that he was alive when he was thrown into the river. In order to mislead investigators, his abductors had pretended to demand ransom from the Chua family. On 31 March 2004, Arnulfo Aparri, Jr., one of the four suspects in the killing of Chua, was sentenced to die by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

, and was ordered to pay

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50,000.00 to the victim's family as

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. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment without parole after the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

was abolished in 2006. Another of the accused, Eduardo Tabrilla, pleaded guilty to

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

and was sentenced to 6-14 years of imprisonment in 2006. The whereabouts of the two other suspects, Paul Joseph Tan and Michael Von Rainard Manangbao remain uncertain.

References

External links

Chronology of events related to the death of Mark Chua
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chua, Mark Welson Year of birth missing 2001 deaths Deaths by person in the Philippines Filipino murder victims University of Santo Tomas alumni People murdered in the Philippines Filipino whistleblowers Crime in Metro Manila 21st century in Manila Reserve Officers' Training Corps (Philippines) 2001 murders in the Philippines