4 frat men out of PH; dad cries foul

Four suspects in the death of hazing victim Guillo Cesar Servando had already left the country, officials said Friday as a formal complaint was filed against 20 people for the June 28 initiation rites that killed the college student and wounded three other neophytes of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity.

But as the complaint reached the Department of Justice after a two-week investigation, a former Manila city councilor questioned the inclusion of his daughter among the respondents named by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

The Bureau of Immigration said that aside from John Kevin Navoa, whose July 1 departure for the United States was confirmed by the BI on Wednesday, three more suspects had already left: Esmerson Nathaniel Calupas, Hans Killian Tatlonghari, and Eleazar Pablico.

BI spokesperson Elaine Tan said the bureau was still checking its records with regard to the other suspects tagged for the death of Servando, who succumbed to injuries after almost four hours of severe beatings with three other TGP recruits from De La Salle–College of St. Benilde.

The complaint prepared by the NBI and the Makati City police identified the rest of the suspects as Cody Errol Morales, Daniel Paul Martin Bautista, Kurt Michael Almazan, Luis Solomon Arevalo, Carl Francis Loresca, Jomar Pajarito, Vic Angelo Dy, Mark Andrew Ramos, Michael David Castaneda, Steven Jorge Penano, Justin Francis Reyes, Ma. Teresa Dayanghirang, Alyssa Federique Valbuena, a certain Kiko, one alias Bea, and a Jane Doe.

They were accused of violating the antihazing law, which carries penalties ranging from four years to life imprisonment. The lightest penalty applies if the hazing results in injuries that did not affect the victim’s daily activities, while the maximum sentence is for initiation rites that result in death.

The Department of Justice issued a lookout bulletin for the suspects on Thursday, but Tan said Navoa, Calupas, Tatlonghari and Pablico had already left the country before the DOJ order came out.

Tan explained that being covered by a lookout bulletin does not necessarily mean that the suspects cannot leave the country. “It only directs our immigration officers to coordinate with DOJ and NBI if there is an attempt to depart. The decision of our immigration officer whether to allow or deny departure will be based on the advice of the DOJ and NBI,” she said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Inquirer, former Manila Councilor Eric Valbuena said the NBI showed incompetence and committed a human rights violation when it included his 18-year-old daughter Yssa in the complaint sheet.

Saying he was speaking on behalf of the parents of the other women tagged by the NBI, Valbuena said he was planning to sue the agents on the case for the “unjust inclusion of our daughters without the benefit of a proper investigation.”

“There was no investigation. Had they done their jobs, they would know that the girls did not in any way participate in the hazing and were themselves victims of circumstance,” he said. “It was a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Valbuena denied earlier reports that Yssa, a DLS-CSB freshman, was a girlfriend of one of the TGP frat men. He said the girl just happened to be at the house where the hazing took place in Barangay Palanan, Makati City, because she was brought there by Dayanghirang, who he said was the girlfriend of Almazan.

Valbuena said he met with NBI Death Investigation chief Joel Tovera earlier on Friday to seek the removal of his daughter’s name from the complaint sheet, but his request was later denied by the bureau.

Reached for comment, Tovera maintained that his team just followed the law in filing the complaint. “Their mere presence in the place where the initiation rites took place was sufficient (ground) for them to be included,” he stressed.