BAÑOC
He was in a prestigious school, fortunate to have well-off and very supportive parents. Possessed with a determined brilliance, he was apparently on his way to a dazzling success — of becoming lawyer.
Horacio Tomas Castillo, a law student of the University of Sto. Tomas College of Law, was declared dead on arrival at the Chinese General Hospital. Attending physicians said he died of heart attack caused by his injuries.
While the police investigation is ongoing, the person who brought him to the hospital is now considered a person of interest after the police noticed that his statements run counter to the CCTV footages gathered by the authorities. The said person is identified as John Paul Sarte Solano. As of this writing, he is already nowhere to be found.
According to the police, there are lots of inconsistencies in Solano’s testimony, especially when he said that he did not know Castillo and that he just acted like a “good Samaritan” when he found a dying man in Balut, Tondo. It was found out, however, on CCTV that he was with Castillo a day before the student’s death. He is also a law student of UST and reportedly a member of the Aegis Juris fraternity.
The parents of Castillo tagged the Aegis Juris fraternity as responsible for the death of their son as Castillo sought permission to attend the fraternity’s “welcome activities” a night before his death. Investigation initially revealed that he sustained injuries in a hazing during the initiation rite of the organization. It is believed that Castillo died at the hands of people who were supposed to be his “brothers.” Members of the said fraternity are already suspended by the Law dean who is also allegedly a senior member thereof.
For now, it seems that no one from the fraternity admitted to the crime, and it seems that they are not cooperative in divulging the names of those involved in the initiation rites. For this reason, the police is correct in running after the member who brought him to the hospital. At least he can give the lead or else he will face the consequences alone.
UST also has a great role to identify the killers and eventually serve justice on Castillo, considering that the fraternity is operating in the said university. The school is supposed to have a record of the fraternity and its members who are their students, and some are their professors.
Section 2 of RA 8049, otherwise known as an Act Regulating Hazing, says, “No Hazing or initiation rites in any form or manner shall be allowed without prior written notice to the school authorities seven (7) days before the conduct of such initiation. The written notice shall indicate the period of initiation activities, shall include the names of those to be subjected to such activities, and shall further contain an undertaking that no physical violence be employed by anybody during such initiation rites.”
Therefore, such notice submitted to the school authorities will also lead the police as to the signatories and the members who would participate in the initiation rites. However, if the said fraternity did not submit such notice as required by law, then UST has to penalize the said fraternity for not following the law. After all, UST is supposed to be strict in monitoring that hazing will not be employed anymore as it is not its first time to experience the same. In 2001, one of its students died of hazing.
Dr. Rene Obra, chief of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center – Center for Behavioral Sciences, explained that young people want to join fraternities despite the knowledge that they will be subjected to hazing because of the sense of belongingness. They also want to have connections and protectors in times they encounter some problems.
I hope that with the latest incident, young people would realize and think deeply on the kind of organization that they want to belong. How can there be brotherhood and protectors when the possibilities are high that their supposed brothers would become their killers? In the latest case, what a tragic incident that the supposed brothers did not bring Castillo to the hospital! Or the one who brought to hospital even disowned that he knew the dying man!
It is ironic that one dies at the hands of one’s brothers. What is more ironic is that the school that figures in this incident is the same school where Dr. Jose Rizal, our national hero and who once said that the youth is the hope of the motherland, once studied.
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My condolences to my fellow broadcaster Mr. Alex Bolongaita for the death of his daughter who was also a broadcaster, Marie Alexi Bolongaita. May you find strength in the midst of grief.