Parents of beaten up UP student demand names of fratmen

The parents of Jesus Blas Vitangcol, a student of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, who was beaten up by masked men on June 18, demanded that the University Student Council compel its chairperson, a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi, to identify their son’s attackers.

But the parents soon walked out of the USC general assembly on Wednesday night after a representative of Upsilon stonewalled the fact-finding committee.

Julita Vitangcol, her husband and their lawyer, Marcelino Arias Jr., came unannounced at the public assembly meant to determine whether the preventive suspension on USC chair JP delas Nieves should already be lifted.

Tension also filled the room at Vinzon’s Hall as members of Upsilon and Alpha Sigma, the fraternity of the victims in the June 18 attacks, started arriving at the GA.

The frat members were invited to shed light on the attacks on the USC fact-finding body.

But after Raphael Pangalangan, lord chancellor of Alpha Sigma, spoke on the details of the attacks, JC Tejano of Upsilon refused to disclose any information, saying the frat needed more time to verify an information that could change the course of the proceedings.

“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,” Tejano said.

It was at this point that the parents, through their lawyer, manifested that they would like to leave the assembly.

“Like what they did in attacking, they hid their faces, now they are hiding facts,” Arias said.

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

As she left, Vitangcol’s mother was muttering, “Liar, liar…”

Pangalangan took Tejano to task for withholding information during the fact-finding meeting. Several student council members also expressed frustration and disappointment as the general assembly stretched into the night without getting answers from Tejano.

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

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

Five members of the Upsilon, who were arrested in hot pursuit on June 18, were charged in court with frustrated murder, malicious mischief and two counts of slight physical injuries. They were part of the second group presumed to be different from the first group that beat up Vitangcol.

Delas Nieves, who was barred from the general assembly because of his suspension, was allowed to enter to answer the questions instead.

The possibility of the involvement of a third party was raised as Delas Nieves confirmed that an Upsilon member was first attacked on June 16, also by masked men wielding lead pipes.

The GA that started at 7 p.m. ended at 5:30 a.m. with the council members voting to suspend Delas Nieves for a month for failure to inform the student body of the June 16 attack, which could have prevented violence from escalating.