Parents walk out of heated UP meeting on frat violence

In a tense gathering Wednesday night, the parents of one of the students assaulted by masked men on the University of the Philippines campus last week demanded that the Student Council compel its chair, a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity, to identify their son’s attackers.

But they eventually walked out of the general assembly after an Upsilon representative refused to give information before a fact-finding committee created by the council.

Accompanied by a lawyer, the parents of Alpha Sigma member Jesus Blas Vitangcol came unannounced to the assembly, which invited Upsilon and Alpha Sigma members to shed light on the two mauling incidents that occurred an hour apart on the afternoon of June 18 and are now the subject of court cases.

The committee also tackled whether the preventive suspension of council chair JP Delas Nieves should already be lifted. The suspension was earlier imposed in view of his Upsilon membership and its possible influence on the investigation.

Tension became palpable early on at the venue inside Vinzon’s Hall as Upsilon and Alpha Sigma members started arriving. About 40 people filled the room for the proceedings that started at 7 p.m. and stretched up to 5:30 a.m. the next day.

Raphael Pangalangan, lord chancellor of Alpha Sigma, first spoke about the details of the attacks—or his group’s version of them.

For the Upsilon’s side, however, representative JC Tejano said: “Unfortunately, supervening circumstances will have to prevent me from disclosing the facts that we have. Because if investigations are conducted and we find specific results, it could overturn what we already know so far.”

‘Hiding faces, facts’

It was at this point that Vitangcol’s parents, through their lawyer Marcelino Arias Jr., signaled their intention to leave. “Like what they did in attacking (Vitangcol), they hid their faces, now they are hiding facts,” Arias told the assembly, where reporters were allowed.

“For the record, we are not hiding facts. We are taking part in the investigation,” Tejano said in reply.

Vitangcol’s mother Ma. Julita was heard muttering as she and her husband stepped out.

An angry Pangalangan questioned the reasons given by the tightlipped Tejano. Several student council members also expressed frustration and disappointment as the proceedings dragged on without getting answers from him.

“Thank you for gracing us with your presence because that is all we are getting,” Councilor Kali Huff said at one point.

Citing the UP student code, Pangalangan demanded that the top three officials of Upsilon be sanctioned as well for command responsibility.

Upsilonians were attacked earlier?

Delas Nieves was allowed to join the assembly since Tejano refused to answer questions from the committee.

In the ensuing discussion, the possibility emerged that a third party was involved after Delas Nieves spoke of an attack that occurred on June 16, two days before the twin incidents, when it was an Upsilon member who took a beating. Based on a police report, this earlier attack was staged by a group of masked men wielding lead pipes, similar to Vitangcol’s case.

The council members later voted to suspend Delas Nieves for one more month for failure to inform the body of the June 16 attack, saying violence would not have escalated had he done so.

Vitangcol lost some teeth and sustained a cut in the head and other injuries in the first of the two attacks on June 18. Aside from him, two more Alpha Sigma members have pressed multiple criminal charges against five Upsilon men who were arrested by the police later that day.

Earlier this week, the city prosecutors’ office upheld the complaints for filing in court. In the frustrated murder charge filed by Vitangcol, the information noted how the accused “confederat(ed) with other persons whose true names and whereabouts have not as yet been ascertained… with intent to kill, with the qualifying circumstances of evident premeditation, treachery and abuse of superior strength.”

On Wednesday, the two Quezon City judges who will be hearing the cases allowed the five suspects to post bail at around P286,000 each.