UP frat lawyers told: Don’t help the boys

An ugly side of school fraternities resurfaced as the state university marked its 107th anniversary. FILE PHOTO

Keep the frat lawyers out of it.

University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman chancellor Michael Tan issued this call over the latest fraternity-related violence on UP campus, which last week led to the filing of criminal cases against five Upsilon Sigma Phi members and the suspension of their top leaders.

“Don’t send in lawyers because it breeds impunity when the students know that their alumni will help them. If the boys know you will run to protect them, they will keep doing it,” Tan said on Saturday in a message addressed to all UP fraternities.

He made the remarks in an interview with the Inquirer on the sidelines of a media event hosted by UP president Alfredo Pascual. He said it was the position of the University Council (UC), a disciplinary body which Tan also heads, in a resolution condemning the June 18 incident.

According to Tan, the top five officials of Upsilon have been preventively suspended for 20 days. He withheld their names.

“It is not a penalty in itself but it is meant to prevent them from fomenting more disorder or destroying evidence,’’ he said.

The UC resolution named the Upsilon members who were arrested for the two attacks carried out on the same afternoon against Alpha Sigma members Jesus Blas Vitangcol, Joevie de la Cruz, Ernesto Luis Martino Pangalangan and Mario Andrefanio Santos.

Charged for the assaults were Cheran Cabrito, Elias Miles Villanueva, Rannie Mercado, Sean Rodriguez and Rudolf Gene Karlo Neral.

Vitangcol (who took the worst beating), Pangalangan, De la Cruz and Santos have pressed multiple criminal charges which will be heard in two Quezon City courts. Both judges allowed the five suspects to post bail on Wednesday.

Pascual, an Upsilon alumnus, said he was “very much upset” about the incident and that he immediately asked Tan to take action based on the university rules.

“We don’t want that kind of violence. We abhor any form of violence on campus,” Pascual told reporters at Saturday’s gathering.

He explained that the new UP student code, whose review was initiated under his term, had put a time limit to resolving cases of fraternity violence in the interest of “swift justice.”

In the open forum, a journalist asked what had become of the hazing incident involving Upsilon last year that sent a 17-year-old student to the hospital.

Both Tan and Pascual maintained that there had been “no whitewash” in the investigation of that case.

But Tan pointed out that they had been informed by the student’s parents that they would no longer pursue the case “because the boy himself wanted to stay with the frat.”

“I see him from time to time. He’s okay, he’s happy with the frat,” the chancellor said.

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