THREE suspects in the deadly hazing of a Grade 10 student in San Enrique town, Negros Occidental were arrested on December 2, 2021.
They were identified as Johnrey Ermisillas, 19; Neil John Villarde, 25; and Rexie Daylosan, 30, all residents of the town’s Barangay Guintoliran, the police said.
They were arrested on the strength of an arrest warrant issued by assistant Judge Mary Jennifer Archies, assisting judge of the Regional Trial Court Branch 62, on December 8, 2021 for violation of the Anti-Hazing Law.
Archies denied them bail, San Enrique deputy police chief Lieutenant Sammy Gasataya said.
The three were allegedly responsible for the death of Mark Lester Miranda, 18, their neighbor.
On September 4, 2021, after Miranda celebrated his 18th birthday, the suspects brought him to another place where he was to be paddled as part of the initiation rites in joining their fraternity.
A few days later, Miranda's family noticed that he had been limping until he was hospitalized on September 8 but died the following day.
But prior to his death, the victim, a student of Doña Hortencia Salas Benedicto National High School in La Carlota City, was able to tell his mother what had happened to him.
Even before his initiation took place, the suspects were already supposed to conduct the rites on March 3 but postponed it because Miranda was still a minor then, police records showed.
Based on an autopsy report made by the Municipal Health Officer Dr. Fritzi Juanillo, the victim suffered hematoma on both of his lower buttocks.
Gasataya said the victim's last testimony to his mother or his "dying declaration" was used as evidence against the three suspects.