Doc holds key to UP stude’s death
August 30, 2007
Updated 01:48:59 (Mla time)
Jeannette Andrade
Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines – The police are looking for Dr. Francisco Cruz, the man who took Chris Anthony Mendez, a suspected hazing victim and graduating student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center at dawn Monday where he was declared dead on arrival.
Supt. Oscar Palisoc, Quezon City Police District Station 9 commander, told the Inquirer yesterday that they have been trying since Tuesday to reach Cruz after he was identified by a hospital security guard as the one who took Mendez to the VMMC.
“Our police investigators at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit are looking for him because he is the key to helping us find out what happened to the UP student,” Palisoc said.
According to the police, Cruz is a doctor at the VMMC. But he has not reported for work since the incident and has not responded to calls made to his cellular phone either, they added.
Mendez, 20, a public administration student who was appointed just last week to represent his college—the National College of Public Administration and Governance—in the UP Student Council was brought to the hospital at 1:08 a.m. Monday by Cruz and several other people.
The victim bore bruises all over his body, especially on the back of his arms and thighs. Unresponsive and pale, he was declared dead on arrival by an attending doctor minutes later.
From the hospital, Mendez’s body was taken to the St. Peter’s Memorial Chapels on Quezon Avenue where his mother proceeded from Tiaong, Quezon after she received a phone call about her son from someone who said she was her son’s landlady.
A police investigator told the Inquirer that they have already identified a student who is suspected of having recruited Mendez into the UP Sigma Rho fraternity.
The source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to media about the case, said that they would invite Ariel Paolo Ante, the NCPAG student council chair, for questioning.
Ante, the source said, reportedly asked Mendez’s friends to wish him good luck “for the initiation” which was to take place over the weekend. Mendez was a member of the NCPAG student council.
UP officials and students have refused to identify the fraternity Mendez allegedly joined before his death.
In a statement, UP Chancellor Sergio Cao extended the university’s condolences to the victim’s family. “We sternly urge the officers, members and alumni of the concerned fraternity to extend their full support and cooperation to the University and the authorities to swiftly bring this case to its just and proper resolution,” he said.
According to the security guard on duty at the hospital at the time Mendez was brought to the VMMC, Cruz was on board a white Toyota Innova (ZXB 393) while his companions were on board two vehicles: an Isuzu Trooper (WGL 515) and a Nissan Frontier (XAS 548).
A check with the Land Transportation Office showed that the Trooper is registered to Beda G. Fajardo, of Cubao, Quezon City while the Frontier is in the name of the Babybon Export Inc. in Muntinlupa City. The pick-up was listed as being used by a certain B.L. Santos.
A member of the UP community who asked not to be identified confirmed the information from the LTO and said that the vehicles were being used by two UP students with the same surnames as the vehicles’ registered owners.
The source added that at around 3 a.m. Monday, one of Mendez’s classmates received a phone call from an unidentified caller who was using the victim’s cellular phone. According to the caller, Mendez’s body was at St. Peter’s. Mendez did not have his cellular phone, automated teller machine cards and personal belongings when he was brought to the hospital.
UP Student Council president Shahana Abdulwahid said the entire student body and the council strongly condemn what happened to Mendez.
“Until the organization that we believe is involved in this breaks its silence, our speculation that the group had something to do with the death will not be dispelled,” Abdulwahid said.
She added that they have been trying to talk to the officers of the fraternity to no avail. The Inquirer also tried to reach the Fajardo home and that of J Castro, Sigma Rho Council of Elders president, for comment, but was told that the parties were not home.
NCPAG Dean Alex Brillantes, meanwhile, said he would meet with members of the UP Student Council and the student body to urge those who knew what happened to Mendez to come forward. “We want to find out how Chris died. The entire UP community wants to find out and we are supporting any investigation of his death,” he told the Inquirer.