MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police is taking the lead in the investigation into the alleged hazing death of San Beda law student Marvin Reglos, and not the National Bureau of Investigation, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said Saturday.
Robredo and Justice Secretary Leila De Lima talked about the case on Friday night and both agreed that the Antipolo City police would be in charge of building the case against the suspects in the alleged fraternity hazing incident, Robredo said.
In a telephone interview, the local government chief said the NBI could help in the investigation but suggested that it refrain from “undermining” the case the police has already built.
Robredo said he has read the police investigation reports and found their case “solid.”
Reacting to a finding by the NBI that cast doubt on the location of the alleged hazing rites and the fraternity in question, Robredo said the NBI must not allow itself to be used by Lambda Rho Beta, the fraternity at the center of the police investigation.
Earlier, NBI Death Investigation Division executive officer Danielito Lalusis said a check made by the bureau indicated that the hazing rites that allegedly killed Reglos on February 19 occurred not at Guillean’s Place resort in Antipolo, contrary to the police report.
Lalusis then said that members of another fraternity—not the Lambda Rho Beta which Reglos was trying to join—were staying at the resort that day.
But Robredo said eyewitnesses positively identified members of that fraternity at the alleged scene of the crime.
He also questioned the findings of the NBI, which relied on the statement of Christian Adobo, one of the murder suspects charged by the Antipolo police, who claimed that he was neither a Lambda Rho member nor a San Beda student.
Robredo said this was likely just a diversionary move. He said a fraternity that planned to do hazing rites in a certain place would quite understandably try to hide its tracks by using other names and so on.
The family of Reglos on Friday asked the Department of Justice and the NBI to stay out of the investigation and leave the job to the Antipolo police.
“We will write to Secretary Leila de Lima and the NBI and ask them not to muddle the police’s evidence and just let the police take the lead,” Dennis Pangan, counsel of the Reglos’ family.
De Lima is a cofounder of Lambda Rho Sigma, the sister sorority of Lambda Rho Beta.