Overjoyed.
That is the sentiment of the family of the late 22-year-old University of Santo Tomas law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III after a Manila court denied the bid of 10 Aegis Juris fraternity members linked to the case purportedly due to insufficiency of evidence.
We can understand the sense of relief by the family members who have agonized for nearly five years—the victim died in September 2017—and two years after the defendants filed for bail, which petition was denied, and then a demurrer which was dismissed by the court.
A demurrer is a defense asserting that even if all the factual allegations in a complaint are true, they are insufficient to establish a valid cause of action, the precise basis can vary from a failure to state a claim to an allegedly unconstitutional statute.
The victim’s parents noted that the court, having appreciated all the pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution and by the defense, is convinced that Atio died of hazing “and not of any other medical condition.”
Some of the respondents, represented by name legal firms, have sought to create skepticism that Castillo had died not from hazing but hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or from conditions affecting the heart muscle where the person may experience fatigue, shortness of breath or heart palpitations and, over time, can make the heart enlarged or thickened.
But the court gave more weight to the testimony of the medico-legal officer who conducted the autopsy on Castillo and on the pathologist who examined his internal organs who separately concluded that “severe blunt traumatic physical injuries” were the cause of Castillo’s death.
Under existing laws, all officers and members of a fraternity who actually participated in the infliction of physical harm shall be liable as principals.
Under the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018, the penalty of reclusion perpetua is meted out if death results from hazing. Unlike life imprisonment, the length of a sentence for reclusión perpetua is fixed at 40 years and cannot be altered during sentencing.
Reclusión perpetua does not allow pardon or parole until after the first 30 years of the sentence have been served, and, after 40 years without pardon or parole, the sentence expires.
Nearly five years from the start of the arraignment, the family outrage and anguish had been dotted by the coronavirus 2019 pandemic. But the parents are satisfied thus far with the pace in the litigation process, expecting it to be smooth and punctuated, as the parents hope, by “conviction for the hazing case.”
We hope this has served as a lesson and a wake up call to those who still believe this barbaric practice has any place in our society.
