The case of the death of University Santo Tomas (UST) law student Horatio “Atio” Castillo has a new witness. His name is Mark Ventura, a frat member who became a state witness on Wednesday.
According to a report of online news website Rappler, Ventura pointed to Axel Hipe as the member who led the initiation rites
Castillo, a freshman law student, was found dead last September in Manila after attending the welcoming ceremonies of Aegis Jvris, a fraternity he was pledging for.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, who revealed details from the sworn statement of Ventura, said the initiation rites began at 1am on Sept. 17 and lasted until 5am.
During this time, Castillo was humiliated and subjected to punching then paddling.
“There were about more than 10 frat men who punched him, and they have a term that they would just continue punching him until his arm would already be swollen,” Aguirre said in Filipino.
When Castillo became unconscious, that was when they called on Solano, who is a medical technologist, to apply first aid.
Instead of bringing him to the UST hospital, which was just across the road from the fraternity library, they took him to the Chinese General Hospital at about 9am that morning.
The Philippine Department of Justice (DOJ) released an immigration lookout bulletin for 65 active members and alumnus of the fraternity yesterday. Individuals on the lookout bulletin are not barred from traveling abroad but have to request permission from the DOJ before leaving.
Ventura is now under the government’s witness protection program.
READ: Hazing suspects say victim died of ‘pre-existing heart condition’
Even with the new witness, members of the fraternity say that even if they did cause these injuries, it wasn’t enough to kill him.
“During that time, you can’t say that the damages are enough to kill a person, so we would base everything on the medico-legal result,” Jvris member and suspect John Paul Solano told ABS-CBN News this morning.
Solano said a “doctor friend” he asked was a specialist and told him that excessive beating would “most commonly” manifest in the kidney, but Castillo’s medico-legal said his kidneys were “grossly normal.”
“That (the violence) is not enough, I think, because based on the report, it is not enough since the kidneys did not explode, the kidneys were normal…It’s the HCM (that killed him) because it’s prevalent on athletes and young persons,” he said.
Castillo’s father refuted these claims, however, saying “blunt trauma” caused his son’s death.
“What led to my son’s death is because of blunt trauma, meaning, coming from hazing; that caused extreme pain and suffering to my son,” the elder Castillo said.
“He (Solano) is not a doctor, he’s a medical technologist. Get a cardiologist to explain [my son’s heart condition],” he added.
