It’s been seven years since Carmina and Horacio II were forced into a battle they never asked for. On Tuesday, October 1, the couple patiently waited outside a Manila courtroom to see the end of their journey that had been marked with pain, agony, and sacrifices.
The couple was calm and composed ahead of the promulgation that would decide whether the death of their son, Horacio III or Atio, would attain justice or be in vain. Atio died due to hazing in 2017 initiated by no less than his seniors from the Aegis Juris fraternity of the University of Santo Tomas (UST).
In less than an hour, the court handed down its decision against the 10 fraternity members — and it was a guilty verdict. What followed was a proud Horacio Jr. flashing the dispositive part of the decision that found the Aegis Juris members guilty of hazing that led to his son’s death. And then there was Carmina who cried on almost every shoulder of their companions who showed up during the promulgation.
“I believed that they will be convicted based on the evidence we presented, based on the witnesses we presented,” Carmina told Rappler in an interview. “Yesterday, I was excited, anxious…. But deep inside, I had no doubts that I will achieve conviction, that we, the family, will achieve the conviction.”
Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 11 Acting Presiding Judge Shirley Magsipoc-Pagalilauan found the fraternity members guilty of violating the anti-hazing law and sentenced them to reclusion perpetua (between 20 to 40 years). The judge also ordered the accused to pay the Castillo family over P600,000 in damages.
The 10 convicted fraternity members are:
- Arvin Balag
- Axel Munro Hipe
- Danielle Hans Matthew Rodrigo
- Jose Miguel Salamat
- Joshua Joriel Macabali
- Marcelino Bagtang
- Mhin Wei Chan
- Oliver John Audrey Onofre
- Ralph Trangia
- Robin Ramos
The fraternity members were first detained under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology but since they have been convicted, they will be transferred to the custody of the Bureau of Corrections.
After speaking to reporters shortly after the court issued its decision, Carmina and Horacio Jr. took the time to thank and show appreciation to those who supported them. The promulgation was like a reunion: Atio’s best friend, Robin, was also there, along with the Manila Police District cops who first probed into the hazing case.
Carmina and Robin turned emotional as they hugged each other. When Atio died, Robin also lost an important part of his life as the two knew each other and were friends since they were young, said Carmina.
“You always see them together. So of course, he lost his best friend, he felt something different. He felt grief. They were still young, 22 years old. He felt grief for losing his best friend [who] died. That’s why he was very emotional,” Carmina said.
Only a few people knew what happened during the promulgation inside the court room, but Carmina said she was crying almost the whole time. What made her feel even more emotional was when the lead prosecutor, Deputy State Prosecutor Olivia Laroza-Torrevillas, touched her hand to give her assurance.
“They’re (prosecutors) all very humble in telling me that it is their duty, it is their job…. I was telling them that you did more than what your job required. You held me and my husband, [with] your hands. You held [our hands] all throughout this time so that justice could be done for us,” Carmina said.
No victors, only survivors
Crimes are like wars — no one comes out a victor, only a survivor. Carmina did not forget to emphasize this in the case of her son, where all people involved, including the suspects, had lost in different ways. Atio is forever gone, and the 10 suspects will be imprisoned away from their loved ones for most of their lives. But Atio’s family is undoubtedly the most affected.
For seven years, they sacrificed time, money, blood, sweat, and tears to seek justice for her son, Carmina told Rappler. They neglected their business because she and her husband chose to be a hundred percent involved in the case. They attended every hearing and took care of every evidence their side had presented before the judge, down to the last and tiniest document.
Carmina and Horacio II taught themselves ways they could help in the case build-up and prosecution.
“It’s all his way of telling us what happened to him…. I value every piece of paper because it’s the story of my son. It’s his story. He tells what happened to him before he died. Who hit him? Who are the people? What happened to him? It’s his story, so I kept it in my heart. We all kept it in [our] hearts,” Carmina said.
In the seven years, the couple learned everything they needed to learn about how the justice system works in the Philippines. This is a parent’s sacrifice, Carmina said, to ensure there will be justice for their son.
“For the last seven years, we’ve decided that we will fight for our [child]. I would guess any parent would do the same, would feel the same. Because it’s your child. It’s your own child. And with that, we really learned,” she added.
Limited accountability
For Carmina, their victory in the hazing case is a way to hold the UST Faculty of Civil Law accountable. She added that the conviction of the 10 fraternity members proved that Aegis Juris is undoubtedly involved in hazing.
“It (UST) is time you check your policies and laws in the school. I would like to reiterate that the school, the university, the civil law department, the dean himself, failed to protect our son,” Atio’s mom told reporters on Tuesday.
In response, UST law dean Nilo Divina said in a message that he sympathizes with the Castillo family, but disagrees with Carmina’s statement that the school failed to protect the freshman law student.
“The university and the faculty have always implemented and upheld policies that promote the safety and welfare of all students. Unfortunately, no institution is spared from the actions of individuals who choose to disregard these measures,” Divina said.
According to Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc, learning institutions “are duty-bound to uphold and protect the rights of its students, and hazing is a direct violation of their student’s right to safety, security, and a threat to their well-beings.”
In terms of accountability in hazing cases, it’s hard for the victims’ family to hold higher officials accountable in the death of their children.
In Atio’s case, the 10 convicted fraternity members were those involved in the actual initiation rites. John Paul Solano, an Aegis Juris member who brought Atio to the Chinese General Hospital, claiming he was a stranger who saw Castillo’s body dumped on a pavement, was convicted of obstruction of justice in 2019. It was proven that he lied and actually assisted the paddlers in bringing Castillo to the hospital.
Aside from the fraternity members, Carmina and Horacio II tried to hold Divina and other officials accountable. They filed complaints against Divina, but the DOJ junked the complaint against the dean and his faculty secretary Arthur Capili “for insufficiency of evidence.”
This is what also happened to Darwin Dormitorio, another high-profile hazing case.
Dormitorio died after being subjected to hazing inside the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in 2019. Two former cadets were convicted of murder in August this year, while the other one under the new anti-hazing law just this year. However, no PMA officer was held to account.
Few convictions
The CHR said hazing is a “practice that is repulsive” to civilized society because it violates people’s rights to dignity. The commission said that although joining a group is a right, this freedom should not be exercised in “violation of human rights, such as the right to life, liberty and security, right against torture and inhumane treatment, and the right to live with dignity, among others.”
In 1995, the country passed its anti-hazing law, Republic Act (RA) No. 8049, after the death of Ateneo law student Leonardo “Lenny” Villa in 1991. But between 1995 to 2017, there has been only one known conviction: two Alpha Phi Omega members who were guilty of violating the law for the hazing and death of University of the Philippines-Los Baños student Marlon Villanueva in 2006.
There have been other convictions, but they were not under the hazing law, but rather for other crimes.
The conviction in the Villanueva case was only followed by Atio’s case this year at the time when the old law had already been amended. The cadet in Dormitorio’s case was convicted under the amended anti-hazing law of 2018, which was passed a year after Atio’s killing.
As previously pointed out by former Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te, there were reasons why the 1995 anti-hazing law needed amendment. For one, the old law’s title was an act “regulating” hazing, but not prohibiting it. In 2018, the law was amended and introduced new provisions stating that all forms of hazing are illegal and imposed additional penalties for those who plan and participate in the rituals.
However, the supposedly stricter law did not stop killings and young men continued to die due to hazing. The most recent death was recorded just this week after grade 11 student Ren Joseph Bayan died after being beaten by Tau-Gamma Phi fraternity members in Nueva Ecija.
What’s next?
No less than former president Rodrigo Duterte admitted that “hazing cannot be eliminated.” Duterte, known for his close ties with the police and military, said this a year after the passage of the stricter anti-hazing law. This law passed after Dormitorio’s death.
So what can be done? Carmina said now that a stricter law is in effect, the ball is in the hands of fraternities and sororities to end violence. Atio’s mom believes that fraternity violence is a cultural problem.
“We’ve done our part. As parents, we no longer lacked in learning, in remembering. We no longer lacked in always fighting, fighting, and fighting…. If the community will take part, if the universities and the schools will take part, we can remove that (violence),” Carmina said. “It is up to [fraternities and sororities] now. They are the ones who will change. They are the ones who will give change.”
Palpal-latoc agreed with Carmina, saying that the new anti-hazing law is comprehensive enough to punish individuals as it not only covers organizations in schools, but also includes those in the communities or related entities.
“What remains is the strict implementation of the law by relevant government agencies and the proactive participation of school administrators and the community in monitoring and reporting these kinds of activity to ensure full protection of vulnerable children, students, and other individuals who may face the threats of such a harmful and violent practice,” the CHR chairperson told Rappler.
Specifically, Palpal-latoc recommended that the government, including the security sector, should collaborate with learning institutions to eliminate hazing. He added that schools must have rules to prevent and to discover all forms of violent and cruel initiation rites within their institutions.
Circling back to Atio’s case, Carmina said she’s still mad at the fraternity members who caused the demise of her son. They never apologized, she said, or even expressed an intent to apologize.
“None of them apologized, even their parents never even expressed an ounce of remorse toward us,” Carmina said. “Even if they ask for forgiveness, they are still answerable to God and to the laws of man. So, since they’re forgiven by the law of man, and I believe they’ll also be forgiven by the law of God.”
Nevertheless, convicting the suspects who killed her son was justice for Carmina and her family. She said the fraternity members did not only take Atio’s life, but also his dignity when they let him die and be sent to a funeral home without any identification.
“The justice that he deserves, the dignity he deserves, we are very proud that we have delivered that,” Carmina said.
She also said that even though they already won their seven-year battle, the fight they never asked for, their family is still willing to help those in need — families who lost their children because of violence in fraternities.
“We’ll continue to give advice if they need our advice. If they need our help, if they need our emotional support, we will be there. We will be there to help, ready to help. If they need a shoulder to cry on, we’ll be there.” – with research from Pierre dela Cruz/ Rappler.com
Pierre dela Cruz is a Rappler intern. Learn more about Rappler’s internship program here.
*Some quotes were translated into English for brevity
