CA affirms disciplinary proceedings vs students linked to UP hazing case 

The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed its decision allowing the University of the Philippines (UP) to continue the administrative proceedings against students suspected to have been involved in the fatal hazing of Cris Anthony Mendez in 2007.

Penned by Associate Justice Zenaida Galapate-Laguilles, the CA 10th Division stood pat on its October 6, 2015 decision reversing the ruling of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court that nullified the proceedings of the UP Student Disciplinary Tribunal (UP SDT).

The petitioners include Ariel Paolo Ante, Marcelino Veloso III, Keefee de la Cruz, and Armand Lorenze Sapital, who are part of the 13 members of the Sigma Rho Fraternity accused of participating in the violent initiation rites that took the life of Mendez, a senior public administration student.

In their appeal, the petitioners reiterated that Section 1, Rule II, of the Rules Governing Fraternities relating to the filing of charges is similar to existing rules on preliminary investigation in criminal cases.

They said deviating from the provision is a violation of due process.

The petitioners also criticized the preliminary inquiries since it was allegedly conducted by the University Prosecutor instead of a member of the UP-SDT as stated in the Rules Governing Fraternities.

The CA said the case was administrative in nature, thus "it is not subject to the rigorous requirements of criminal due process."

“The preliminary inquiry and the formal charges herein are but components of the investigative and disciplinary action an academic university is mandated to take against its students suspected of being engaged in hazing activities,” the appellate court said.

"What is at stake here is not the petitioners-appellees' liberty from criminal incarceration, but their continued admission to an institution of higher learning, which is discretionary upon a school, the same being a privilege on the part of the student rather than a right," it added.

Investigators said Mendez was seen in a compound at Bonifacio Village, Quezon City along with other young men before he was brought to the Veteran's Memorial Medical Center on August 27, 2007.

Mendez, 20, was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors noting several hematoma on his wrists, thighs and feet.

His death sparked calls for justice and condemnation from various groups including the UP Diliman administration on the use of violence as a prerequisite for admission into any organization. — BAP, GMA News