MANILA: If restaurateur Aurelio Servando had a choice, he would like to see and talk to the members of Tau Gamma Phi fraternity responsible for the death of his 18-year-old son.
“I would like to see them. I won’t take the law into my own hands and do anything bad to them but I would like to see them,” a calm Aurelio said even while the remains of his son Guillo was being cremated last Wednesday.
Aurelio said he has several questions for them and the most important of which is why they never brought his son to the hospital.
“I would like to ask them: ‘Why did you have to inflict so much pain on my son? Did you ever control it? Did you ever stop and realize that instead of bringing him back to the condo, if you brought him to the hospital, he might be still alive today? I would like to ask them why,” he said.
Guillo, a sophomore student of De La Salle University (DLSU) College of Saint Benilde (CSB), succumbed to multiple injuries he sustained during the initiation rites in Makati last week.
Although Aurelio has accepted his son’s death, it was difficult for him to concede that it was from hazing he called “senseless.”
“And it’s in the hands of a bunch of animals who did not deserve to have control of my son’s life,” Aurelio said.
“It makes it much more difficult. I’d rather see him die some other way. This is so instant. Plus, it’s so useless,” he added.
The Manila Police District has identified two of the suspects as Cody Errol Morales and Pope Bautista, both from DLSU.
Morales was identified as the supposed “Grand Triskelion” of Tau Gamma Phi while Bautista is the fraternity’s secretary and acted as the medic who tried to revive Servando.
The other suspects were identified as Anton Santiago, Don Castillo, Carl Loresca, Hans Tamaring, Trex Garcia, Stephen Peñano, and two others known only as Vic and Emeng, who allegedly acted as the master initiator.
The Makati police said five of the suspects in the hazing have sent feelers to surrender.
Makati police chief Senior Superintendent Manuel Lukban said he met the parents separately and they gave assurance on the surrender of the suspects.
“They assured me that they want to apologize to the family of the victims and that they would be surrendering their children who were present during the hazing rites. They also told me that they would also convince the parents of the other suspects to do the same. They realized that if their sons face jail time then they might as well bring along the others who were there,” Lukban said.
Lukban said he discussed the consequences of their plan to surrender their children.
The Philippine Star
