The initiator of Resolution No. 504, Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri, expressed positive outlook in the fatal hazing case of University of Santo Tomas law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III after learning about Mark Ventura’s revelations on what happened on the night Castillo died.
“It is a welcome development to the case and brings us one step closer to Justice for Atio and his family,” Zubiri said.
The Senator who filed the resolution directing the appropriate Senate committees to conduct an investigation into the killing of Atio said that he perceives hope that those who are responsible for the ‘senseless act’ would soon be held accountable.
“The pang of conscience is the thin line that separates men from beasts. Young Marc gives me hope because his young conscience made him tell the truth and free himself from the sinister code of silence to cover up the crime within the walls of the Aegis Jvris den called the Library,” Zubiri said.
Ventura is the second Aegis Juris member turned state witness after John Paul Solano.
Zubiri complimented Ventura, saying that the law student “won the fight from being a coward.”
“It must have been a battle that Marc fought in his mind and heart through all these days while the Senate investigated, his frat brods lied and lawyers conjured smokescreens to save their skins. I note with high regard that Marc won the fight from being a coward to one who fearlessly stared at the truth and preferred to be part of the light instead of the dark lies,” the Senator said.
“The narration rendered by Marc showed the frat brods were relentless in inflicting pain and injury. What they did were not symbolic acts of initiation into brotherhood or tests of character. Each paddle whack, each punch and each candle wax drip had built into deathly blows from which no one could have emerged a whole person physically, emotionally and mentally. Atio was a whole man before he underwent hazing, and came out of it a broken mass in pain,” he added.
Ventura, who admitted to be the master initiator 2, came to Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and officials of the National Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday to revealed how Atio was brutally killed by 10 members of the fraternity.