6 frat members in alleged hazing death already in police custody as DILG chief issues ultimatum
Five more members of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, believed to be involved in the alleged fatal hazing of 19-year-old maritime student Mark Kenneth Alcedo, have surrendered to authorities.
One of those who surrendered was a 19-year-old teenager who gave himself up to Dasmariñas City Mayor Jenny Barzaga on Sunday, Philippine National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuaño told reporters at a briefing in Camp Crame on Monday.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier confirmed to the Inquirer that four other fraternity members yielded to the police in General Trias City on the same day. He identified them as John Lee Tuliao, 22; Archie Rosil, 21; Kenneth Ompod, 18; and John Rey Torrecampo, 19.
Remulla said on Monday that he gave the Tau Gamma Phi National Council until Tuesday, March 10, to surrender those involved in Alcedo’s hazing.
“To those who have yet to surrender, don’t wait for the full force of the law to find you. To those who are hiding them, they will be considered as complicit in the crime. They are harboring a fugitive,” the head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) added.
The first suspect to surrender did so on March 3. The still unidentified fraternity member, along with Tuliao and Torrecampo, supposedly brought Alcedo to the General Trias Medical Center on March 1, after the alleged hazing activity. The victim, however, was declared dead at the hospital, according to Remulla.
Tuaño noted that police investigators have yet to determine the role of the other surrenderers.
He said the police have now narrowed down the number of suspects accused of direct participation in the case to only 15, leaving only nine more suspects at large.
An autopsy report showed that Alcedo’s death was due to blunt force trauma to the lower extremities.
The fraternity earlier condemned the incident and urged those implicated to surrender to authorities, saying that the organization had instructed its local councils to comply with Republic Act No. 11053, or the Anti-Hazing Act.
