{"id":126828,"date":"2017-10-26T23:30:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T03:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=126828"},"modified":"2017-10-26T23:30:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T03:30:16","slug":"new-witness-brings-atio-one-step-closer-to-justice-zubiri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/26\/new-witness-brings-atio-one-step-closer-to-justice-zubiri\/","title":{"rendered":"New witness brings Atio one step closer to justice: Zubiri"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: \u201cI 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,\u201d Zubiri said in a statement. (Photo: Senator Migz Zubiri\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong> \u2014 Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri on Thursday welcomed the sworn statement of witness Mark Ventura, a former leader of the Aegis Juris fraternity, which he described as a \u201cstep closer to justice for the hazing death of law student Horacio \u2018Atio\u2019 Castillo III\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Zubiri said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung 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 Juris den,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Zubiri made this remark after Ventura expressed his willingness to \u201cface the consequences of his actions\u201d which include abandoning his fraternity brothers.<\/p>\n

Ventura, who has already been accepted to the government\u2019s Witness Protection Program (WPP), is the second person to talk about events that transpired leading to Atio\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The first was John Paul Solano, prime suspect into Atio\u2019s death. He, however, claimed that he was not there during initiation rites and was only called to revive the victim and bring him to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Zubiri earlier slammed Solano, a medical technologist, for his claim that Atio died of a pre-existing heart condition and not hazing.<\/p>\n

He noted that Solano is \u201cblatantly lying through his teeth to cover up the criminal acts of his frat brods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II earlier said there is enough evidence to stand in court to prosecute the people liable in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a welcome development to the case and brings us one step closer to Justice for Atio and his family,\u201d Zubiri said.<\/p>\n

Zubiri, meanwhile, lamented how Ventura\u2019s narration showed that the \u201cfrat brods were relentless in inflicting pain and injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEach 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,\u201d Zubiri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAtio was a whole man before he underwent hazing, and came out of it a broken mass in pain,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Zubiri, a family friend of the Castillos, initiated the Senate inquiry into Atio\u2019s hazing death meant to draw recommendations for government agencies concerned and amendments of the Anti-Hazing Law.\u00a0(PNA)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014 Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri on Thursday welcomed the sworn statement of witness Mark Ventura, a former leader of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":126745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[24595,24456,29548,29646],"class_list":["post-126828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-aegis-juris-fraternity","tag-horacio-atio-castillo-iii","tag-mark-ventura","tag-senator-juan-miguel-zubiri","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}