UST has abandoned Atio, says mom

The University of Santo Tomas (UST) has "abandoned" Horacio "Atio" Castillo III, said the deceased law student's mother on Friday.

Carminia Castillo lamented the Catholic university's administration for its supposed "silence" over her son's death, almost five months to the day since the 22-year-old succumbed to hazing-induced “severe blunt traumatic injuries.”

"Mahal na mahal niya ang UST and parang at this point nararamdaman ko that UST has abandoned him," said Carminia in an interview on Dobol B sa News TV.

Atio was a political science major at UST before he enrolled at its law school, where he joined the Aegis Juris fraternity, some of whose lawyer-members have recently been asked to comment on a disciplinary complaint at the Supreme Court.

To this day, Carminia said, the UST administration has not taken "action" following Atio's death, as she believes there are still Aegis Juris members still enrolled in the university.

Faculty members who had knowledge of the hazing incident and the subsequent death have not at least been suspended, she added.

The fraternity itself has not been banned, either, she said.

She compared UST's "silence" over her son's fate to its "quick" reaction on the award given to presidential communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson.

On the heels of the award-giving by the UST Alumni Association, the school's director for public affairs issued a statement, saying there was a distinction between the university itself and the alumni group.

Uson eventually returned the award.

"They are not doing anything about it. They are being quiet about it. I really don't know why, and who are they protecting?" she said.

Following a recommendation by Senator Miguel Zubiri, a family friend of the Castillos, Carminia earlier confirmed they are planning to file a complaint against UST with the Vatican.

She said the family is building their complaint and are discussing which kind of complaint to lodge.

Pope Leo XIII made the UST a pontifical university in 1902.

GMA News Online is awaiting the university's reply to a request for comment.

Criminal complaints have been filed against members of the fraternity who allegedly had a hand in Atio's death.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have approved on third and final reading a bill that bans all forms of hazing, an amendment of the existing law which only regulates hazing as part of fraternity, sorority or organization initiation rites. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KG/RSJ, GMA News