Frat violence on UP Day: 3 mauled, 5 arrested

An ugly side of school fraternities resurfaced as the state university marked its 107th anniversary. FILE PHOTO

Fraternity violence erupted Thursday on the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Diliman, Quezon City, sending three students to the hospital and ending in the arrest of five suspects who yielded lead pipes, a baseball bat and shotgun rounds in their vehicle.

“Ironically, the assaults occurred during our celebration of the university’s (107th) Foundation Day,” UP Diliman chancellor Michael Tan said in a statement Friday. “Instead of upholding UP’s cherished values of honor and excellence, the assaults bring great disgrace to the frats concerned, and to the university.”

“The UP Diliman administration condemns these brutal attacks,” said Tan, who said the state university was conducting its own investigation. He did not name the students and the fraternities involved.

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) identified the students without mentioning their frats.

But a statement from the student political organization, UP Alyansa, described those involved to be members of the Alpha Sigma and Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternities.

At press time, the QCPD was preparing to file complaints for frustrated murder, physical injury and malicious mischief against Cheran Cabrito, Rannie Mercado, Rudolf Neral, Elias Miles Villanueva and Sean Rodriguez. Included in the complaint were five John Does.

Case records showed that around 3 p.m. on Thursday, Jesus Blas Vitangcol and Joevie dela Cruz were walking along Apacible Street near the corner of Magsaysay Avenue inside UP campus when they were assaulted by a group of men who got off a blue Mazda 3 car (ZHB 967).

Second attack

Vitangcol was apparently the only target of the group since he was the first to be struck in the head and body. Dela Cruz was also hit when he tried to help his companion.

When their attackers left, Dela Cruz contacted his brothers in Alpha Sigma.

About an hour later, his frat mates—Ernesto Luis Martino Pangalangan and Mario Andrefenio Santos—arrived at the scene in separate vehicles. Vitangcol and Dela Cruz were no longer there.

With Pangalangan still inside his Land Rover, a silver Peugeot van approached and out of it came a group of men wearing ski masks. They struck Pangalangan and his vehicle with lead pipes.

Raquel Legaspi, a security guard who saw the two attacks, alerted the UP police through radio.

The men in the Peugeot van—Upsilon members identified as Cabrito, Mercado, Neral, Villanueva and Rodriguez—were arrested after a chase within the campus and brought to the UP Diliman police headquarters. They were later turned over to the QCPD Anonas station, where they remained in detention Friday.

Inside the van, the police found and marked as evidence four lead pipes, a baseball bat, three live rounds for a 12-gauge shotgun, two screwdrivers, and a bloodstained tissue paper.

Vitangcol, Dela Cruz and Pangalangan received initial treatment at the UP Health Service. Vitangcol, who lost some teeth and sustained a cut in the head and bruises on many parts of his body, was later transferred to UERM Medical Center.

In his statement to the QCPD, Vitangcol said his attackers—the group in the Mazda—numbered at least four.

‘Premeditated’

Chancellor Tan noted that “the use of getaway vehicles shows these attacks were premeditated.”

He denounced the “cowardice of masked assailants out to maim others in the name of frat honor.”

“I was shocked when I saw the principal victim at the University Health Service,” Tan said, apparently referring to Vitangcol. “To use the Filipino description, he was ‘bugbog sarado (beaten to pulp).’”

The students involved had been slapped with preventive suspension and the UP administration will conduct a hearing on the incident, he added. “We will impose the full penalty for those found guilty, and this is expulsion. There is no place for cowards in UP.”

In its Facebook post, UP Alyansa called on Student Council officers who are members of Upsilon and Alpha Sigma to “take the necessary steps as principled student leaders to hold their brothers accountable for their barbaric actions.”

“We ask them to participate and cooperate in any ongoing investigation to give justice to all stakeholders, especially those injured,” the group said.

“UP Alyansa also demands that the UP Administration under president Alfredo E. Pascual, an Upsilonian, ensure that proper sanctions will be meted out to the erring fraternities and their members involved in this incident to seek accountability that no ‘truce’ will be able to provide.”

Past UP incidents

Fraternity-related violence has claimed the lives of UP students in the past:

In December 1994, law student Dennis Venturina, a member of Sigma Rho, was killed a rumble on campus with rival fraternity Scintilla Juris.

In February 1999, Niño Calinao, a 21-year-old journalism student, was shot dead also on campus. Investigators suspected that Calinao was mistaken for a member of the Scintilla Juris fraternity, which was involved in a fight with Sigma Rho fraternity members the week before he was killed.

In 2006, Cris Mendez of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance, died due to injuries suffered in a fraternity hazing. He was believed to be joining the Sigma Rho at the time his death.

In December 2012, administrative complaints against the Alpha Phi Beta and Alpha Sigma fraternities were filed by the UP College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP), represented by then dean Michael Tan and student council chair Carlo Brolagada.

The complaint, filed in the Student University Tribunal, cited the two groups for violating UP’s Revised Rules and Regulations Governing Fraternities, Sororities, and Student Organizations, an offense punishable by expulsion.

The case stemmed from the violent confrontation between the two groups at Alpha Sigma’s known “tambayan” or hangout at Palma Hall, the CSSP’s home building. With Inquirer Research