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[av_heading heading=’ Frat hazing suspect surrenders ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – One of the three suspects in the death of University of Santo Tomas (UST) law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III surrendered to Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday.
According to Lacson, John Paul Solano was accompanied by UST Faculty of Civil Law dean Nilo Divina to the Senate upon his arrival from Northern Luzon.
Solano, also a law student from UST, was immediately turned over by Lacson to Manila Police District (MPD) director Joel Coronel.
In a press conference, Solano said he was not at the initiation rites and that he was merely summoned to come by fellow members of the Aegis Jvris fraternity to give medical assistance to Castillo on Sept. 17.
“I was not there when the initiation was held. My only participation was to give medical assistance,” Solano said. “I’m a registered medical technologist and I’m a medical help provider.”
Solano, along with Ralph Caballes Trangia, were tagged as primary suspects in Castillo’s death. They were the ones who brought the latter’s body to the Chinese General Hospital on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary Vitaliano Aguirre yesterday said two possible witnesses have reached them out to shed light on Castillo’s death.
Aguirre said one of the witnesses was a member of Aegis Jvris fraternity who had knowledge of the initiation rites while the other was a fellow UST student of Castillo.
Aguirre, however, said there was still no agreement if the two possible witnesses would execute affidavits or avail themselves of the government’s Witness Protection Program.
“I am hoping that the fraternity member would eventually execute an affidavit and the UST student, who also showed up at the DOJ, would return to also execute a sworn statement,” Aguirre said.
The Justice secretary said DOJ was still “at the very initial stage of the investigation, that is why we opened a hotline to encourage them to come forward. They should tell us what they know and we will give them protection,” he added.
DOJ also opened the “DOJHoracio hotline” – 09954429241 – for anyone with information that could help in the arrest of the suspects in Castillo’s death./PN
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