Mayor Celso Lobregat on Monday met with leaders of fraternity groups said to be involved in numerous incidents in Zamboanga City in a bid to minimize if not stop further violence.
The meeting was set by Acting City Police Director Col. Manuel Barcena, who was earlier instructed by Lobregat to gather the leaders of the Greek lettered fraternities, specifically Tau Gamma and Zeta Phi Omega, and to look into measures on how to end the tension among the members.
The meeting, held at the City Hall conference room, sought to thresh out differences, if there are any, between and among the members and at the same time to seek their support in solving the recent violent incidents reported to be related to fraternity feuds.
"While they (leaders) claim that the incidents were not fraternity initiated, we imparted to the frat men our request that they should not take the law into their own hands," Lobregat said after the conference.
Lobregat asked the frat leaders to share to the authorities any information related to the incidents that happened the last two weeks. "They should report it to the authorities and let the police and the Justice Department take it from there". He also appealed for the frat leaders' cooperation in producing witnesses to the spate of incidents.
He said the meeting, which was held behind closed doors, went well and that more meetings will follow in the days to come, as the fraternity leaders admitted that there are certain groups within their organizations that were not represented during the meeting.
"We also asked the different organizations to stop any retaliatory moves because both groups denied any involvement in the incident", Lobregat said. He likewise urged the fraternity leaders to instill discipline among their members.
The mayor cited the importance of a peaceful co-existence between and among the fraternity groups in the city and hoped for the early resolution of the recent violent incidents in the city.
Barcena for his part said the leaders agreed to help each other in solving the cases that happened the past weeks. "There is no such thing as gang war in the city. The frat leaders promised to cooperate and help each other in solving the case".
Rommel Natividad and Prince Bayabos who represented the Zeta Phi Omega and Rosita Jumlain, Tau Gama Secretary in separate interviews pledged to support Mayor Lobregat's call to help the authorities in easing the tension.
They also promised to coordinate with each other in cases of differences to prevent the situation from becoming worse.
