Manila: Relatives and friends called for justice as the 19-year-old rape victim was buried in her hometown in suburban Rizal on Tuesday, a TV report said.

"We hope to get justice as we bury our daughter," said Daniel Cebanico, father of Given Grace Cebanico who was raped and killed by two suspects, a security guard of a bank and a tricycle driver, inside the campus of the University of the Philippines in Los Banos (UPLB) southern Luzon last week.

"I wish that crimes will no longer be committed in the UPLB campus," said the victim's father.

Singing ministry

"I have no more shoulder to cry on," lamented Cebanico's close friend Naryne Amansec as she and several friends marched out of a chapel to Rizal's Santo Rosario Memorial Park.

The victim's other grieving friends included members of a Christian singing ministry.

"She was our singer. We will miss her," recalled a member of the Life in Christ and His Word ministry.

About a hundred were there to sympathise with the victim's family.

The UP students who attended Cebanico's burial were quiet as they mourned the passing of a friend.

At the same time, they revealed a plan to continue "raising awareness" to authorities to make the UPLB campus safe for students.

Abducted

Cebanico was abducted when she was on her way to her dorm inside the campus Monday night.

Her body was found Tuesday morning in a canal in Barangay Putho-Tuntungin. There was a bullet wound on her forehead, her hands were tied behind her back, and her mouth was covered by a masking tape.

She was raped and then killed, investigators said.

Security guard Lester Rivera and tricycle driver Percival de Guzman were arrested, following a statement from a 16-year old boy. They will be charged with homicide with rape, police said.

De Guzman claimed that Rivera was the mastermind of the crime. Rivera admitted that he used an agency-issued gun to shoot Cebanico, but he denied raping her.

Bodyguards

In 1993, Mary Eileen Sarmenta, a UPLB student, was gang-raped and brutally murdered when she and her boyfriend Allan Gomez, also a UPLB student, were snatched and brought by bodyguards to Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez.

Sanchez was sentenced to serve seven life terms for the crimes that he denied having committed. His bodyguards were also convicted for committing the atrocious crimes that shocked and angered many Filipinos 18 years ago.