Prospects dim for amicable deal in hazing victim’s case
The possibility of an out-of-court settlement being reached between the accused in the death of alleged hazing victim Marvin Reglos and his family appears to have dimmed.
“It seems useless to talk to the accused. They keep on making promises but nothing happens,” Myrna Reglos, Marvin’s mother, told the Inquirer in a phone interview on Monday.
Marvin was a law student at San Beda College when he died in February 2012 due to injuries reportedly sustained from hazing rites conducted by the Lambda Rho Beta fraternity.
Charges of murder were consequently filed against several individuals affiliated with the fraternity under the antihazing law.
In February 2013, the only suspects arrested in connection with Marvin’s death—Bojhee Yap and Erick Castillo—were allowed to post bail by Antipolo Regional Trial Court Branch 97 Judge Miguel Asuncion who said the prosecution failed to prove that the victim died as a result of hazing.
Lawyer Dennis Pangan, the counsel for the Reglos family, earlier told the Inquirer that his clients became open to a possible settlement after several of the accused, accompanied by their families, visited Marvin’s grave in Isabela province on his first death anniversary.
“According to Myrna, they went [there] to pay their respects to the dead and to [apologize] for everything,” Pangan said, adding that the gesture “would melt a mother’s heart.”
But he was candid enough to admit that another consideration was the suspects’ offer of a monetary settlement.
Myrna, however, has since experienced another change of heart. She now describes the accused and their families of appearing to be insincere.
She said that when she and the other camp started talks on an out-of-court settlement, the latter promised to get in touch with her in April 2013 as soon as they had gathered up money among themselves to offer to her and her family.
The accused moved the date, however, to October last year and then again to May this year.
“They have yet to deliver on their promise. If they say it, they should mean it,” Myrna stressed, adding that the discussion about a settlement was initiated by the accused.
She speculated that the suspects were probably having difficulty collecting money among themselves, even from the fraternity’s members.
“Maybe they’re just pointing fingers at each other. They have no unity. I don’t know what kind of group that is,” she said, calling the fraternity a “useless brotherhood.”
She said that in the meantime, she would attend the court hearings on her son’s case on June 30 and July 28.
Myrna clarified, however, that she remained open to an amicable settlement although she could not help but express resentment at the lack of action from the accused.
