A seaman from Iloilo City tagged as one of the suspects in the death of a schoolteacher whose body was dumped in a Bago City canal on Aug. 2, has been dropped from the National Bureau of Investigation list of possible suspects in the crime.

NBI-Bacolod chief Philip Pecache yesterday said their investigation showed that Cadet Carlson Gison of the M/V Alex Amparo Shipping Corp. based in Cebu, and a former boyfriend of Allen Hope Barcoma, 23, had not left the vessel from July 26 to Aug. 12, which shows he and the victim did not see each other on Aug. 1.

Pecache said he received a letter from Felipe Batucan Jr., ship chiefmate, saying Gison boarded the vessel on July 26 as apprentice. He said the certification justified Gison's non-participation in the death of Barcoma.

We are dropping Gison from our list of suspects for now, he said.

Gison, a former resident of Brgy. Su-ay, Himamaylan City, had been eyed by the police and NBI as one of the persons who picked up Barcoma in front of her boarding house at about 8 p.m. on Aug. 1, Pecache said.

Barcoma, an elementary teacher of the Fellowship Baptist School in Binalbagan town, was badly beaten up, raped, and killed by at least three unidentified persons who dumped her body in an irrigation canal in Bago City with a nylon cord tied around her neck. She was buried at the Hinigaran public cemetery Saturday.*DMG

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