Hazing victim laid to rest
Hazing victim Horacio “Atio” Castillo III was buried at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque on Wednesday, September 27. The family called for justice despite the on-going probe for the hazing case.
Horacio 'Atio' Castillo III's casket. Photo by Dianne Mariano/THE FOURTH
The 22-year-old freshman law student of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) died due to an alleged hazing by the Aegis Juris Fraternity of the UST Faculty of Civil Law.
The burial mass started at around 2 p.m. at Santuario de San Antonio in Makati City and the funeral convoy arrived in Manila Memorial Park at around 4 p.m.
Family, relatives, and friends turned emotional as they laid their eyes on Atio for one last time.
The family let him go in peace as they released butterflies from the baskets. “You will hear all my love around and here; now fly away butterfly as you go. Let go and I’m releasing you, Atio. Go up and be with your grandfather,” said Gerry Malvar Castillo, uncle of Atio.
“To Atio, you didn’t die as a lawyer, but you died more than like a president,” he added.
Gerry Malvar Castillo also called for the help of the Filipino people to bring justice for Atio: “If I had all the means, if I would have to fight with the help of the people of the Philippines, I would get justice for Atio, even [when] he’s gone.”
Atio’s dog, Lega, who was in a #JusticeForHoracio shirt, was also present at the funeral.
Lega (Atio's dog) wearing a white shirt with #JusticeForHoracio print. Photo by Dianne Mariano/THE FOURTH
We lost a great person
Atio’s family and friends remembered him and encountered memories with him.
Atio's mom, Carmina Castillo(right) in grief. Photo by Dianne Mariano/THE FOURTH
“Atio is a simple guy, humble, silent, one thing na ano sa kanya is mahal na mahal niya yung lola niya,” said Alberto Malvar Castillo, uncle of Atio.
(One thing about Atio is that he loves her lola so much.)
A lot of his friends came wearing a black shirt with a #JusticeForHoracio sign; they were all downhearted by the loss of a great friend as they described him.
“Syempre si Horacio ‘yun talaga mabait ‘yan, alam kong sinabi niya sa amin na mahal niya kami, mabuting tao talaga siya for me,” Myles Mempin, one of his friends, said.
(Horacio is a kind person; he told us that he loves us and he really is a good person for me.)
Kian Mojica, one of Atio’s classmates in Colegio de San Agustin, remembered him as their little brother who wants to serve his country: “Si Horacio kasi I knew him as a friend, siya yung pinaka-little brother namin in a sense na (siya) yung parating tinutukso namin; but the reason for that is he has traits that we wish we also had.”
(He is the little brother among us in a sense that we always tease him.)
“He wants to change the country the most and from that. Horacio is a good person, we lost a great person in this world,” Mojica added.
Atio is very caring as a friend as Enzo Leonardia described him, “Horacio’s different; he’s like the greatest friend that you can never hope to have because he’s very likeable. He cares about you a lot in the sense that he will always be there for you, and no matter what, he will make time for you especially when you’re in some deep trouble or anything.”
They shared few memorable experiences with Atio that really made them miss him the most.
“Si Horacio, he’s very daring, he faces this world head on and he’s not afraid of what other people might think of him. A good experience I had with him, a funny one actually, is [sic] when we watched a movie, he yelled the spoilers and everyone got mad, but he didn’t care because it was only for a good fun. Sometimes I wished that you know, we could share more experiences like that,” Mojica laughed as he reminisced her moment with Atio.
At first, they could not believe that he is already gone; even until now, they could not think straight or recover for the loss of their great friend.
“And sometimes, I wake up and think that maybe he’ll leave me a message or maybe he’ll tell me ‘Let’s go out and do some stuff,” Mojica said.
“We all want justice for him, but right now all I want is peace for myself, my friends and Horacio’s family, and every single one of his friends,” he added.
End of the Fraternity
Atio’s uncle, Gerry Malvar-Castillo made conviction to pursue justice and end the Aegis Juris Fraternity.
“This is the end of your fraternity,” said Malvar.
“I don’t know if any neophyte will ever join your organization, that’s what I could say. You’ve lost a good man who could have been on the top of Aegis Juris if you have not killed him,” he continued.
Malvar commented on the temporary freedom of prime suspect, John Paul Solano: “Let the law take its course.”
“We are going to fight a very, very powerful law firm and you are involved. You just don’t know me, but I know (you),” Malvar powerfully stated.
When asked if he can state the name of the law firm, he said: “I think you should just update that, you’ll know eventually.”
In an exclusive interview with The Fourth, Malvar said that the actions done by UST regarding the case of Horacio is not enough, “kulang ‘yung action nila.”
He also said that fraternity or initial rites should be banned and hazing should be stopped.
“Bahala na ang Panginoon sa’yo, that’s my only message,” Malvar said, referring to Aegis Juris.
(Let God be in charge of you.)
Help the legal battle
Batch ’86 of Colegio de San Agustin (CSA) decided to help the family of Horacio by coming up with GoFundMe. People can give any amount of money to support the legal battle of Atio’s case.
“Kasi alam niyo naman ang kaso dito sa Pilipinas, masyadong matagal so marami tayong kailangan bayaran na legal fees,” said David Amor, representative of Batch ’86.
(We all know that in the Philippines, the process takes a long time, and we have a lot of legal fees to pay.)
The details for the GoFundMe can be seen in the Facebook page Justice for Horacio, handled by selected officers of CSA’s Batch ’86 and close friends of the Castillo family.
There is also a Banco De Oro (BDO) account dedicated to receive support for the local donations and Go Fund for International as Amor said, “Malaki itong laban. Lahat sila may matinding resources.” (This is a big fight. All of them have big resources.)
This target amount is to at least reach one million pesos to initially support the family: “This is not, I would like to repeat, this is not something which the family asked,” Amor said.
The CSA batch ’86 called for help: “We need the public to please help pamilya (the family) of Atio.”
