Hazing ain’t established: SC acquits 2 Tau Gamma Phi frat members over Lyceum student’s death

Two members of the Tau Gamma Phi Fraternity have been acquitted by the Supreme Court (SC) for violating the Anti-Hazing Law of 1995 over the death of a college student in 2009.

The SC made public on Wednesday (Oct. 27) the June 28 decision of its Third Division that granted the petition of frat members Carlos Paulo Bartolome and Joel Bandalan who sought to overturn the 2014 conviction of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 20 of Imus, Cavite, which found them guilty of hazing in the death of John Daniel Samparada, a college student of the Lyceum of the Philippines.

“After a careful review of the case and the body of evidence adduced before the RTC, the Court is not convinced that petitioners are guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the offense of hazing,” reads the SC decision.

“Thus, the Court resolves to reverse the appealed decision and acquit petitioners,” it ruled.

The two accused claimed that they were at the house of a certain Ivan Marquez for swimming in Cavite and among those with them was Samparada.

They said Samparada was rushed to the hospital after falling on the floor, hitting himself on the pavement and complaining of difficulty breathing.

However, hospital staff told police that Samparada may have been a victim of hazing as shown by bruises on his thighs.

The SC pointed out that t “jurisprudence instructs that ‘for circumstantial evidence to be sufficient to support a conviction, all circumstances must be consistent with each other, consistent with the hypothesis that the accused is guilty, and at the same time inconsistent with the hypothesis that he is innocent.’”

“In sum, the circumstantial evidence presented by the prosecution has failed to establish the elements of hazing and to produce an unbroken chain that leads to one fair and reasonable conclusion pointing to petitioners, to the exclusion of others, as the persons liable for the death of Samparada,” the tribunal stated.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)