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Sunday, October 09, 2005
Frat heads vow to arrest thugs
CEBU CITY -- It will take more than peace accords and wishful thinking to put an end to the violent conflict between two rival fraternities in Cebu.
Less than an hour after Tau Gamma Phi and Alpha Kappa Rho (Akrho) agreed to sign a manifesto on ending their conflict, violence erupted anew between the rival fraternities Saturday night.
A Tau Gamma member shot an Akrho member outside the Ayala mall in Cebu City at 7:20 p.m. Though wounded, the victim survived
The manifesto will require the fraternities to expel members who got into fights and to help the police arrest them, frat leaders agreed in a meeting Saturday with Acting Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Vicente Loot.
The manifesto will also require leaders of both fraternities to send memoranda ordering their members to avoid violence. Police will evaluate suggestions from the two groups and will draft the memorandum.
But before the effort could even take off, another shooting incident involving the two frats unfolded.
Akrho member Rolando Conde was trying to stop a fight between his friends at Ayala's V-hire terminal when suspect Arturo Quitoy allegedly shot him.
Quitoy, 20, was trying to flee when security guards caught him still clutching a .22 revolver. Conde, 21, was wounded in the right arm and was brought to the Perpetual Succour Hospital.
'Criminals'
Less than an hour before that, leaders of Akrho and Tau Gamma met for two hours and thirty minutes inside Loot's office. Present were members of Tau Gamma's council of elders and Akrho officials, led by regional president Richard Buscaino.
"I want hierarchy in responsibility and accountability," said Loot, who earlier proposed having the groups branded as criminal groups.
From January 2004 to Oct. 4 this year, 16 have died and 26 were injured in the conflict between the two groups.
Government and church officials, including Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, have called on the two fraternities to end the violence.
Less than a week before Saturday's shooting, a grandson of PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao was gunned down in yet another incident involving the two fraternities.
Kyle Kales Lomibao-Capsa, 23, a Tau Gamma member, died of a gunshot wound in the chest. He was attacked in Sambag 2, Cebu City last Oct. 3.
Akrho member Ritchie John Moreno, 21, owned up to the killing, and said his frat brother, Tyke Philip Lomibao, told him to do so.
Capsa and Lomibao were cousins.
Tough talk
A murder complaint was filed against Moreno and Lomibao before the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office. Moreno and Lomibao are now detained.
That incident came about a week after the Capitol initiated peace talks between the two fraternities.
It was agreed in Saturday's meeting that the manifesto shall be ready by next week. Fraternity leaders will sign this before Governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
But Buscaino and the Tau Gamma officials said they should not be held directly responsible for the violence, because it is the chapter presidents who have control over the members.
Buscaino said they have 15,000 members and it's difficult for the group's top leaders to monitor them all.
A member of Tau Gamma's council of elders said the fraternity has just issued a memorandum ordering members to strictly follow the policy of recruiting college students only. Recruits must have no negative records with the barangay and police. (AIV/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(October 9, 2005 issue)
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