Hazing ‘not enough’ to kill Atio— Solano

FILE: Hazing suspect John Paul Solano on Friday insisted that the hazing rite for University of Santo Tomas (UST) freshman law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III was “not enough” to kill him. (PTV photo)

Hazing suspect John Paul Solano on Friday insisted that the hazing rite for University of Santo Tomas (UST) freshman law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III was “not enough” to kill him.

“Based on the report it (hazing) is not enough because the kidneys did not explode. The kidneys are normal,” Solano said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart on Friday morning.

Solano, a licensed medical technologist and a member of the Aegis Juris fraternity, stressed that a pre-existing heart disease killed Castillo, and not the violence imposed to him during the fraternity initiation rite.

During the interview, Solano elaborated his counter-affidavit that a medico-legal report showed that Castillo had a Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM), a condition in which the heart muscle becomes thick.

“From my study as a licensed medical technologist, HCM could not have been caused by hazing or any physical activity,” Solano said on his counter-affidavit filed on Tuesday.

“Patients with HCM have an increased risk of cardiac failure. Thus, if it’s true that Horacio died of cardiac arrest, the death of Horacio is not due to hazing, but he died of cardiac arrest due to HCM,” he added.

Earlier, an autopsy was conducted on Castillo which showed that the law student died of massive injuries he obtained from the hazing rite.

As he was called by other members of the fraternity after Castillo “collapsed,” Solano narrated that he tried to slapped Castillo’s face and even checked his pulse and pupils.

“Yung unang check ko ng pulse, wala. So the second time sabi ko iche–check ko ulit. Ang sabi ko may naramdaman akong pulse. Nung time na ‘yon hindi ko alam kung sa akin o sa kanya [The first time I checked the pulse, there was none. For the second time, I told myself I’ll check it again. I said I felt a pulse, but that time I was not sure if it was mine or his],” he said.

Saying that Castillo’s pulse was weak, Solano said he administered CPR on the victim.

“The damages…is not that…nung time po na kasi na hindi mo rin masasabi na the damages are ganon ka-enough to kill a person. So we would base everything sa medico-legal result [The damages…during that time, you cannot tell if the damages are enough to kill a person, so we would base everything on the medico-legal result],” Solano said.

The hazing suspect also added that he is not responsible for the medico-legal and investigation documents used for the counter-affidavit.

Solano was tagged as one of the suspects in Castillo’s death after he brought the victim to the Chinese General Hospital on the morning of September 17, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Asked why he did not take Castillo to the nearest hospital, Solano defended that he was “under tremendous stress,” and that he was not the one driving the car.

“I was following them since they were the ones leading,” he said.

“Ako po, sumama ako dahil gusto kong makita kung mabubuhay siya dahil gusto kong mabuhay siya since yun naman ang aim at goal ko kaya ako nagpunta doon. Without knowing kung ano ang nangyari, basta sabi nilang nag-collapse, nagpunta ako dun kasi gusto kong tumulong [I went there because I want to see him alive and I want him to be alive. That’s my aim and goal when I went there. Without knowing what will happen, they said Castillo collapsed, I went there because I want to help],” Solano ended.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III on Wednesday has revealed the details of Castillo’s death narrated by Mark Ventura, a former officer of the fraternity.  Ventura told Aguirre that the neophyte was maltreated by more than 10 fraternity members who punched and hit him with paddles multiple times. Ventura said the members woke Castillo from unconsciousness through candle drippings.