UST probes hazing; freshman law student’s parents seek justice
The University of Santo Tomas (UST) on Monday condemned hazing as it started investigating the death of a freshman law student.
“We condemn hazing in any form or manner. Violence has no place in an academic institution, particularly in the UST that values and promotes charity and compassion,” Associate Professor Giovanna Fontanilla, director of the UST Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement following the death of 22year-old freshman law student Horacio Castillo III.
Police said Castillo’s body, wrapped in a blanket, was found
by a witness on a sidewalk in Balut, Tondo last Sunday. His body had bruises and candle wax drip marks. He was taken to Chinese General Hospital where the student was declared dead on arrival.
Fontanilla assured that UST is already conducting an investigation to ferret out the truth, determine liability, and to institute the necessary legal actions.
“We will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the perpetrators be meted the appropriate sanctions and brought to justice,” Fontanilla said.
“No words can describe our sadness for this unfortunate incident,” she added.
The UST said they share in the pain of the family of Castillo and offered prayers for them.
“We express our profound sympathy and offer our prayers to his family for their pain and anguish – a pain that we share seeing that the life of our very own student, with all of its aspirations and potentials, taken away because of a senseless act,” said Fontanilla.
Last night, around 300 UST students gathered at the Civil Law lobby to condemn the killing.
Civil Law Student Council president Jonathan Santos said the death came as a surprise because they are not aware that there are still fraternities who use violence in initiation rites.
Manila Police District (MPD) spokesman Erwin Margarejo assured the Castillo family that they will look at all the possible angles in the incident and conduct an extensive probe on the case.
“All angles, tinitignan natin, including hazing. Usually kasi kapag may hematoma, laging may torture or may hazing,” he said.
He also called on witnesses to come forward and coordinate with the police
Preventive suspension
In the wake of Castillo’s death, members of Aegis Juris Fraternity have been preventively suspended from entering the UST premises starting Monday to give way to investigations.
A memorandum order signed by Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said that officials and members of the fraternity “would not be allowed to enter the campus or the Faculty of Civil Law or attend classes until further orders” to ensure unobstructed investigation.
Parents of the victim said a pamphlet of Aegis Juris Fraternity containing contact details of their son’s recruiters was left in their home.
Castillo’s father, Horacio Jr., on Monday appealed for justice for his son.
He said that his son had no desire to join a fraternity, but was later convinced to do otherwise when promised that there would be no hazing involved.
“He told us there will be an initiation, and that he will be asked to do something, but that no body harm would be involved,” the Castillo patriarch recalled in a radio interview.
He recalled that last Friday, his son told them that the initiation was over and the fraternity would welcome him as a new member on Saturday.
“He went to UST on Saturday and he promised he would be back Sunday morning,” the father said.
But Sunday morning came and Castillo was still not home. He was not even answering text messages and phone calls.
Anonymous text
His son, he said, left a pamphlet of Aegis Juris fraternity, which had the contact details of his recruiters so they started calling the numbers but they still received no response.
“Siguro, sa kakakulit, may nag-anonymous text that my son was in Chinese General Hospital,” he said.
It was at the hospital where they found the body of Castillo.
Horacio lamented that his son’s life could have been saved if he was given immediate treatment at nearby hospitals in Sampaloc.
“My son was saying it’s a good frat, maka-Diyos sila. Ang daming hospital sa Sampaloc, they could have given him immediate treatment but they dumped him on the sidewalk,” he said. “We want justice. My son is only 22 years old.”
Horacio said his son went through extreme pain because he had hematoma and burns in the different parts of the body.
Like the Castillo family, Father Conegundo Garganta, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Youth, expressed sadness over the death of the law student.
“Sadness for the loss of another life, sadness for the family of the hazing casualty, it will be layers and layers of pains for losing a loved one, pains to meet justice. Sadness, too, for the fraternity and the members, they stained their hands with the blood of their kind. Sadness, too, for the families of the fraternity members for they too will share in all the pains of another roller coaster ride of pointing fingers, who should be held full liability of the crime,” Garganta said in an interview.
He said it’s a pity that many young males and their elders continue to ignore the painful lessons of past incidences of death due to hazing activities. He said the fraternity involved should clear their group about the incident.
Stronger anti-hazing law
Meanwhile, Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian called on the UST leadership to take the lead in seeking justice for Castillo.
“The fact that the fraternity being implicated in this hazing death is recognized by the university itself as a legitimate student organization means that UST cannot pull the same tricks used by other schools in the past to evade responsibility for the criminal actions of their students,” he said.
Gatchalian renewed his call for the passage of revamped legislation to replace the 22-year-old Anti-Hazing Law of 1995.
Gatchalian’s proposed replacement measure, Senate Bill No. 199, would expand the scope of liabilities and increasing the penalties for hazing offenders, and mandating educational institutions to play a central role in hazing prevention and awareness. (With reports from Mario B. Casayuran and Glendel Nazario)