Hunt for more UP frat men heats up

CHARGED BAND OF BROTHERS: Upsilon Sigma Phi members (from left) Cheran Cabrito, Elias Miles Villanueva, Rudolf Gene Karlo Neral, Rannie Mercado and Sean Rodriguez have their mug shots taken under the custody of the Quezon City police. QCPD PHOTOS

A smartphone may be the key to identifying more of the frat men behind last week’s assault on four students from a rival group on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

The police said the phone was found in the Peugeot van used by the five members of Upsilon Sigma Phi who were arrested for the June 18 incident. The five suspects allegedly carried out the second of two attacks targeting members of the Alpha Sigma fraternity.

The phone, now subject to digital forensic examination, could help establish the identities of the frat men in the first group, said Supt. Richard Fiesta, commander of the Quezon City Police District’s Anonas Station.

“It will be submitted to the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group to check its contents—whether they (two groups) communicated with each other, who are their contacts and if there was a plan to carry out the assault,” Fiesta told the Inquirer on Tuesday.

The arrested students from the second group were established to be Upsilon members in a dialogue held by UP Chancellor Michael Tan with the leaders of the two frats on Monday, according to Raphael Pangalangan, lord chancellor of Alpha Sigma.

More details also came to light about them: Cheran Cabrito is a former councilor at the UP College of Arts and Letters; Elias Miles Villanueva is former councilor at the College of Fine Arts; Rudolf Gene Karlo Neral is a UP alumnus now taking up medicine in another school. The two other arrested students are Rannie Mercado and Sean Rodriguez.

Along with the phone, three shotgun rounds, five lead pipes, a baseball bat, a black ski mask and a bloodstained piece of tissue paper were found in their van.

After undergoing inquest proceedings and spending the weekend in detention, the five were indicted for malicious mischief, slight physical injuries and illegal possession of ammunition.

The police also filed a complaint for frustrated murder on behalf of Alpha Sigma member Jesus Blas Vitangcol and for physical injury on behalf of Joevie dela Cruz.

Assistant City Prosecutor Ramoncito Ocampo earlier recommended that these two complaints undergo preliminary investigation. On Tuesday afternoon, however, Ocampo said his ruling was reversed by Chief Inquest Officer Rogelio Velasco, who recommended the suspects’ indictment for frustrated murder.

The assault on Vitangcol and Dela Cruz happened in the first attack. Around 3 p.m. on June 18, the two were walking inside UP campus when Vitangcol took a severe beating from at least four masked men wielding lead pipes. Dela Cruz was also hit when he tried to help his frat mate as he fell unconscious.

The attackers were then seen using a blue Mazda 3 (ZHB 967). The QCPD has asked the Land Transportation Office for help in tracing the vehicle.

About an hour after the first attack, two more Alpha Sigma members alerted by Dela Cruz—Ernesto Luis Martino Pangalangan and Mario Adrefenio Santos—arrived at the scene in separate vehicles to gather information.

It was at this point that Cabrito and company allegedly entered the picture. They were said to be the masked men who got off a Peugeot van and struck Pangalangan and his vehicle, also with lead pipes.

The UP Diliman police, who were alerted by a female security guard who saw the two attacks, later apprehended the men in the Peugeot in a chase that ended on Himlayan Road corner Tandang Sora Avenue.

The UP administration has preventively suspended the students involved as it conducts its own probe, which could lead to their expulsion from the state university.

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