Police arrest suspect in 2025 stabbing death of SEA Games gold medalist

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro – After a year of manhunt operations, law enforcement officials finally caught up to the prime suspect in the 2025 killing of Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Airman First Class Mervin Guarte, during a July 28 joint intelligence operation that was conducted in the Tarlac town of Bamban, the MIMAROPA police said on Tuesday. Guarte was fatally stabbed in Sitio Pinagkaisahan, Barangay Camilmil in Calapan during a dawn attack on January 7, 2025, court records show. <strong>READ: <a href="https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2022175/sea-games-gold-medalist-mervin-guarte-stabbed-dies-in-mindoro">SEA Games gold medalist Mervin Guarte stabbed, dies in Mindoro</a></strong> Guarte was a national athlete who won a gold medal for track and field at the 2019 SEA Games, and gold with an obstacle course race team in 2023. Details about the suspect was not made public but the police here said the fugitive was caught at 2:40 p.m. along Tizon Street, Barangay Banaba in Bamban by operatives led by the MIMAROPA police's Regional Intelligence Division (RID). The murder suspect was arrested by virtue of a Warrant of Arrest for Murder (Criminal Case No. CR-25-17425) issued on March 28, 2025, by Calapan Regional Trial Court Judge Charity Grace Alcantara-Rico of Branch 40. The suspect also carried a ₱300,000 bounty through the government’s wanted persons program. He will be transported to the Calapan City Police Station for documentation and proper legal proceedings. The operation brought together personnel from various units: Regional Intelligence Unit 4B; PAF’s 300th Intelligence Squadron Wing; Angeles City Police Office-Criminal Investigation Unit; Bamban Municipal Police Station; Tarlac Police Provincial Office; Calapan City Police Station; Oriental Mindoro Police Provincial Office-Provincial Intelligence Unit; Regional Mobile Force Battalion 4B; National Intelligence Coordinating Agency MIMAROPA; and Naval Intelligence and Security Unit 34, following intelligence leads that pinpointed the suspect’s location. Brig. Gen. Christopher Dela Cruz, the MIMAROPA regional police director, in a statement, had described the operation as the result of sustained intelligence work and strong inter-agency coordination. MIMAROPA or Region IV-B is made up of the provinces of Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan. /jpv