Sunday, April 04, 2004
Cebu judge’s son gets fresh start from bar results
By KARLON N. RAMA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Cebuano law student who was charged, together with 26 others, with the 1991 hazing-related death of an Aquila Legis fraternity plebe was among those who passed the latest bar exams.
Jude Fernandez, son of Lapu-Lapu City Regional Trial Court Judge Romuldo Fernandez, was among the 30 University of San Carlos College of Law examinees who will soon be formally admitted to the bar.
“I am happy, extremely happy. I am thankful to the Lord, my family and my companions,” he said.
Fernandez was among those charged with the death of Leonardo “Lennie” Villa, a first-year student of the Ateneo Law School, who joined the three-day Aquila Legis Fraternity initiation rights early in February 1991.
After the ceremony, Villa had to be admitted to the Chinese General Hospital, where he eventually died. His death led to the creation of the Crusade Against Violence in Manila, now co-headed by Teresita Ang-See and Cebu’s Thelma Chiong.
Fernandez and the others present during the initiation were placed under investigation and suspended from school.
They were ultimately expelled in an administrative decision that, while reversed by the lower court, was affirmed by the Supreme Court in May 1993.
A trial, which later on reached the Court of Appeals (CA), was conducted.
The CA, in a decision handed down in January of 2002, convicted two of the Aquila Legis fraternity auxiliaries, saying there was sufficient evidence only as far as Fidelito Dizon and Artemio Villareal were concerned.
The two had some personal disagreements against Villa and had used the fraternity’s initiation ceremony as a venue to get back at him.
According to Justice Eulogo Versola, there is no such thing as conspiracy to commit hazing. He maintained that a neophyte’s consent to undergo physical initiation can be used as a valid defense.
“It was an unfortunate event. I never thought that it would reach that far. We were never involved but we were still implicated because of conspiracy,” said Fernandez, who, along with his fraternity brothers, was charged with homicide.
The case was not covered by the Anti-Hazing Law, or Republic Act 8049, which was enacted in June 1995. The law prohibits fraternities, sororities and organizations from subjecting an applicant to physical or psychological harm, among others.
Judge Fernandez, in a separate interview, expressed happiness over his son’s having passed the bar, saying it caps his son’s sacrifices to get where he is now.
“It was his own decision to take up law and he sacrificed for it. Now he has passed the bar despite the obstacles that he’s undergone. I am very thankful,” Judge Fernandez said.
(April 4, 2004 issue)
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