5 UP frat members claim they were framed

They were “falsely implicated” and the “bullets were planted,” the lead counsel for the five members of Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity said on Tuesday as the defense filed an omnibus motion asking for a preliminary investigation on the charges of frustrated murder and illegal possession of ammunition.

“As of yesterday (Monday, June 29), we’ve filed an omnibus motion asking for a preliminary investigation because based on police investigation, there were two incidents — the Vitangcol incident where the frustrated murder charge stems and the Pangalangan incident. This group has nothing to do with the Vitangcol incident because that involved a Mazda car,” lawyer Alex Avisado told reporters.

The five accused — Cheran Cabrito, Elias Miles Villanueva, Rudolf Gene Karlo Neral, Rannie Mercado and Sean Rodriguez — were scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 80 but it was reset to Aug. 11 because Judge Charito Gonzales went on sick leave. The omnibus motion will be heard on Thursday.

Avisado said there was no basis for filing frustrated murder against the five students and that the police of the University of the Philippines, who arrested the respondents in hot pursuit, planted the shotgun bullets found in the silver Peugeot van.

On June 18, a group of masked men wielding lead pipes beat up Jesus Blas Vitangcol on campus. The attackers fled on a blue Mazda. About an hour later, Ernesto Luis Pangalangan’s Land Rover was thrashed by masked men also wielding lead pipes who fled using the silver Peugeot van.

“Everyone knows, especially fratmen, that a van is not a hit car. It’s a mother’s car,” Avisado said. One of the defense lawyers has also filed a motion to release the vehicle but Avisado could not confirm who among the accused owns the van.

In Pangalangan’s case, Avisado said the defense was still studying the evidence and the students’ supposed involvement. “They found one ski mask, but there are five people. There should be fairness in the investigation,” he said.

“We are already preparing to file criminal and administrative charges against the UP police for falsely implicating the five students and for illegally planting evidence,” he said.

“There are issues that need to be clarified. Hopefully, the preliminary investigation will give these children the opportunity to present evidence,” Avisado said. “We commiserate with the family of the victim, but they (respondents) did not carry out the attack.”

“We’re appealing for fairness in this case. When the mugshots were published, the family expressed objection that they are being portrayed as ordinary criminals. Last time we check, they’re presumed innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

The counsel for the Alpha Sigma members, Roel Pulido, said there was a car chase before the respondents were arrested. “Things were disposed of during the car chase. The fact that there was one ski mask is enough proof of that conspiracy,” he said.

Pulido said the respondents’ counsels did not ask for a preliminary investigation during the inquest. “As an afterthought, they are asking for it now.”

“If there were such objections, why did they not raise it during the inquest? Planted evidence, when? That’s all afterthought,” Pulido said.

“Conspiracy is clear. The uniformity of weapons, uniformity of modus operandi and targets, they are all consistent to show that it was a concerted attack against members of Alpha Sigma fraternity,” he said.

Pulido said the prosecution would file a motion asking the court to direct the Philippine National Police to conduct a forensic examination of the smartphone taken from the accused after they were arrested.

“We’re confident that they’re hiding something in that phone because they’ve been trying to grab that phone since day one. They’ve been trying to demand the police to release the phone,” he said.

Jonathan Bantugan, one of the arresting officers and investigator of the UP Diliman Police, shrugged off the accusation of planted evidence as just a matter of defense. He said the police took the evidence in their presence and the students did not say that the phone did not belong to them.

He said that during inquest, the only opposition raised was that the black mask was not a bonnet but a ski mask.