Loot wants Akhro, Tau declared as criminal groups

Cebu Provincial Police Office director Vicente Loot yesterday said he would recommend for the declaration of warring Alpha Kappa Rho and Tau Gamma Phi as criminal groups should their rivalry continue.

Loot said he ordered the police chiefs in different towns in the province to compile all the records of atrocities between Akrho and Tau Gamma to support his recommendation for them to be declared as criminal groups to the regional police and the Regional Peace and Order Council.

Loot's recommendation came after holding five conferences with police chiefs who informed him of the violence committed by the warring fraternities in the province, especially in the town of Carmen and the city of Danao.

Loot said that since fraternity violence in the province has never been solved, it's about time the police did something to solve it because Akrho and Tau Gamma are now recruiting even criminals into their groups.

He said fraternity leaders should accept responsibility of any act committed by their members.

Richard Buscaino, Akrho's president in Central Visayas, said Loot's move to name them a criminal group is far too impossible because they are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Buscaino said they have not done anything against their by-laws and that they were trying their best to be active in civic works.

He said the troubles with their rival fraternity, Tau Gamma, have something to do with personal grudges, reiterating that any illegal activities committed by their members will be subjected to suspension and expulsion.

"We are not perfect, if the police have bad eggs, we too have bad eggs in the organization, but dili mi kapili kay buotan sila sa dihang miapil sila sa organization, Buscaino said.

Buscaino added that Loot did not count the good deeds of their organization and was only counting the bad side of it.

He said that during their convention in August, he even urged the 18,000 members of their organization not to join political rallies so as to lessen the workload of the police.

Meanwhile, Basil Raya, a Tau Gamma member, said there has been no concrete evidence that Tau Gamma and Akrho committed all the atrocities in the province.

"There have been no convictions at all. Why level us as criminal gangs, why not (the police) just do their job and stop the grandstanding and go after the individuals involved," Raya said.

He said declaring Tau Gamma a criminal group would cause a big damage to the organization because it is an international fraternity.

Although the Cebu City Police Office and the city government had initiated peace talks between Akrho and Tau Gamma, violence still erupted between the two fraternities. In Danao City, residents have expressed their support the suggestion of Cebu Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpale that to end fraternity violence in the city, a curfew should be enforced.

A survey conducted by a local television channel, Danao Cable, shows that majority of the residents in the city favor the implementation of the curfew.

Magpale made the suggestion following reports that several deaths in the city and neighboring towns stemmed from the conflict between Akrho and Tau Gamma. - Flor Z. Perolina and Jose P. Sollano