By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The supplier of illegal drugs used by the suspect in the Victorias City rape-slay case surrounding a seven-year-old girl has been arrested.
Jose Bernardino, alias ‘Bruno,’ was arrested Wednesday afternoon in a Victorias City Police Station buy-bust operation at his home in Sitio Pasil, located in the city’s Villa Miranda, Barangay 6-A.
Victorias City police chief, Police Lt. Colonel Eduardo Corpuz, said they recovered heat-sealed plastic receptacles containing suspected shabu, along with a tooter.
The rape and murder suspect, Mark Besa, who was arrested earlier this week after police managed to track him down to Ajuy, Iloilo, where he was hiding with relatives, named the reported drug dealer.
The suspect claimed he bought illegal drugs worth P1,000 from Bernardino a few hours before the victim went missing.
Besa has since admitted to the crime and was charged rape and homicide before the Victorias City Prosecutor’s Office last Tuesday.
The victim was found dead late Sunday night inside a sack that was thrown at garbage pile in Victorias City.
The results of an autopsy showed the victim had been raped. The victim’s face also showed evidence of abuse, along with her neck being forcefully twisted.
Examiners concluded the victim’s cause of death was due to severe head injury caused by blunt force trauma./DGB, WDJ