Frat senior members who planned cover-up should be held liable – Lacson
Senior members of the Aegis Juris fraternity who planned to cover up their “brothers” involved in the hazing of freshman law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III will not be spared from the Senate’s recommendation on who should be held liable.
“Even as the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs is yet to finish its investigation on the fatal hazing of the 22year-old University of Sto. Tomas (UST) student,” Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the panel, on Friday said he “would recommend to also penalize those who moved to help Castillo’s killers evade prosecution.”
Lacson said not only the suspects should be meted with penalties, but also their elders who were found to have conspired to cover them up. He said they were “accessories” to the crime.
During the hearing last Wednesday, Manila Police District (MPD) chief Joel Coronel bared a Facebook chat conversation among 18 members of the Aegis Juris, discussing their next steps on the case.
Most of those who plotted the cover-up were reportedly lawyers, while one was supposedly a staff in the Supreme Court. They also met in a Quezon City hotel where CCTV cameras caught them.
Lacson said he is also bent on including in his committee report the amendment of the Republic Act 8049, or the Anti-Hazing Law of 1995, to impose stricter and higher penalties both for the principal suspects and the accomplices.
Lacson urged the MPD to authenticate the identities of those who participated in the Aegis Juris chat group. He said they will also be summoned to the next hearing of the case.
Meanwhile, Lacson said other members learn from the detention of Arvin Balag who was cited in contempt for being evasive to the senators’ question during the hearing.
Nine other Aegis members suspected to have been part of the initiation rites appeared at Wednesday’s hearing but opted to keep silent and repeatedly invoked their right against self-incrimination. Lacson said they, too, could be cited in contempt should they continue to resist the questioning in the coming hearings.
“Di lang naharap ang iba at walang nag-motion pero ang iba roon talagang hinog na rin ma-contempt dahil malayo ang sagot. Parang tinatanong mo sa isang bagay na self-incriminatory pero ang sagot, I invoke my right against self-incrimination. Di katanggap-tanggap (The others were not present and there was no motion, but those who were there are ripe to be charged with contempt because their answers are far away from the questions),” Lacson said.
Atio’s laptop Meanwhile, the parents of Atio Castillo went to the MPD Homicide Section yesterday afternoon to submit the latter’s personal laptop for examination.
“Gusto lang makita ng pulis kasi baka may leads or names na nandun (We want the police to see this because there might be some leads or names there),” Horacio Castillo, Jr. told reporters.
MPD Spokesperson Erwin Margarejo said the cybercrime group will conduct an electronic device examination at the laptop.
“We will check the contents, baka may video footages, chat, or other electronic evidence that we can verify or validate,” Margarejo said.
Margarejo also said that they are contemplating the filing of the charge of obstruction of justice against the lawyers included in the Facebook Messenger chat group, where members called for a meeting to decide on their stand even before the news of Atio’s death broke out early Sept. 18.
“It is very obvious sa Messenger thread that they tried to cover up, they were planning to cover up and obstruct justice on the ongoing investigation,” Margarejo said.
He also said that they are presuming that the fraternity members who refused to submit their DNA samples during the Senate hearing were present during Atio’s initiation rites.
“If you deny na makuhanan ka ng sample, presumption is that you were present [during the initiation rites],” Margarejo said.
The DNA sample taken from Atio’s parents earlier matched the blood sample extracted from a paddle found during a search at the Aegis Juris fraternity library.