End the Impunity, Exact Accountability over Frat-related Violence

Marc Titus Cebreros

July 1, 2010, 6:35 pm, Shakey's Katipunan, Regular Case Conference of OLA Team 8.
Team member Eric Pasion was discussing the case he was handling when suddenly a
young man started hitting Eric's nape with a lead pipe. The man, who had boyish
features, was calm and methodical, poker-faced as he continued to strike Eric. My
teammates scrambled for safety as chairs and tables were overturned. I saw Francis Asilo
run behind me and around the table while another boy wearing a hoodie gave chase,
armed with lead pipes on both hands. Atty. Litong, our supervising lawyer, was running
towards the door of the function room. Francis breezed past her. The boy chasing him
had already hurled his lead pipes at him. With no more lead pipes to throw at Francis, he
picked up my laptop from the table and hurled it across the room to the door. I felt cold,
numb. I could only shout, "laptop ko yan!" and "deadlines ko!" as my laptop, given to me
by my father when I was still a law freshie, flew twenty feet, hit the door and fell on the
floor with a loud thud. The assailants and two others escaped through the front and side
doors of the restaurant. I opened my laptop but the LCD gave the appearance of a broken
microscope slide.

I am writing this to document what happened. We Filipinos have fleeting memories. Only
three years ago, a young man's promising future in public administration was nipped in
the bud by the fraternity who very well may have been responsible for the cowardly
attack yesterday. Three years after leaving my own fraternity, I was feeling secure even
as news of the Upsilon Sigma Phi and Sigma Rho war came. The only precaution I took
was to wear my ID, per the LSG's instructions. But frat-related violence has a strange
way of catching up with those who steer clear of it.

We were celebrating the birthday of Bruno Tangangco, our team leader. In between case
discussions, we were exchanging stories of our misadventures as law interns. We had just
sung "Happy Birthday" to Bruno. He hadn't even finished half of his on-the-house
sundae.

I arrived at the dorm from Station 9 a little before midnight. In my dream were images of
physical and mental torture, a most harrowing story. I was forcing myself not to wake up,
but I opened my eyes and it was 4:40 am. The sun was already up when sleep came to
me; only to be woken up by the loud knocking on my door an hour later. It was the dorm
manager, relaying my mom's frantic message. She had seen me in Unang Balita.

Recalling that moment when the boy chasing Francis was hurling my laptop, while his
brod was clobbering Eric, I remember, and reaffirm, the long-derided claim of the
feminists -- that all rights violations arise in the context of serious imbalances of power.
As a crime is being committed, the perpetrator exploits the climate of fear he had
engendered to render his victim totally helpless in powerlessness. The assailants, grim
and determined, didn't even bother to hide their faces.
What fault have we, as individuals and as a group, to merit this kind of treatment at the
hands of a fraternity among whose members we count classmates, batchmates, friends.
Alain Baguisi, Sigma Rho's current leader, was my colleague in IHR. I was counting on
him to rein in his brods. I tried calling his mobile but he wouldn't take it. Alain, I implore
you as your fellow human rights worker, take responsibility for your brods' acts.
Accountability is a basic human rights principle. IHR expects you to abide by it. You can
still lead your frat away from the path of violence.

The incident raises questions beyond that of individual liability. It calls for Sigma Rho as
an institution to be held accountable, for several reasons. First, the attack although
directed at individuals, was executed in a context of interplay of institutions -- the
College of Law, the Office of Legal Aid, the faculty as a group, the students as a group.
Second, within the institutional milieu of the fraternity involved, the actual perpetrators
were just pawns. Judging by their looks, they couldn't have been 18, raising an RA 7610
violation. If they were undergrads, how could they have known and targeted Eric Pasion
and Francis Asilo who already in their senior year at Law, if their senior brods at Law
had not ID'd those two to them. Third, what fratmen love to describe as a sub-culture
with all the trappings of social recognition is actually a culture whose norms, mores and
rules evoke gross disrespect for the rights of others. Over the years, several have been
killed or maimed all because they happened to belong to a rival group or were
"barbarians", hence "outsiders" whose inherent rights were trifling compared to the rights
of those who belong to the murderous brotherhood. My own classmate Mico Cruz
sacrificed his future as a lawyer in this country in the name of brotherhood, even as the
actual murderers of the unfortunate kid Cris Mendez were washing their bloodied hands.

I call on the University of the Philippines Board of Regents and the administration to do
concrete steps to vindicate the rights of the victims, and prevent groups like this from
victimizing any student, staff or professor in the future. A Special Commission should be
appointed to study the systemic implications of this phenomenon and recommend steps
by which the University as an institution and as a living community may be able to
confront this internal menace in compliance with human rights standards and principles.

I respectfully recommend that Sigma Rho be de-recognized and deprived of the hollow
prestige that has enabled it to hide its bloody history. The same goes to all other
fraternities proven to have been involved institutionally in committing acts of violence
against their fellow scholars of the people.

I earnestly request the administration to facilitate the identification and apprehension of

the assailants through their records at OSA, OUR and their respective colleges. They
should not only be expelled from the University but they should be barred from being
admitted into any program leading to the legal profession. Those at positions of authority
in the University should exert full efforts at ensuring that the police investigation will
proceed in an accurate and honest manner, leading to the filing of strong cases in
appropriate courts.
There is still hope beyond vengeance. It arises from the Sun of Justice whose light should
illuminate the hearts of every person. It is necessary however for Justice to be done that
measures be had that would meet the standards of fairness in a society that values human
life.