Parents ok autopsy to see if son died of hazing

The parents of the 13-year-old boy, who allegedly died of hazing Tuesday dawn, finally acceded to the request of the City Police for an autopsy to determine the real cause of death of the boy.

Homicide section chief Mario Monilar yesterday said that he visited the boy’s family to convince them that it would be better to conduct an autopsy on the boy’s body to clear suspicions that the boy might have died of dengue and not of hazing as earlier reported.

Monilar advised the parents of the boy, Ren Atillo, that, since there was no available copy of the death certificate, it would better to have an autopsy to clear doubts over the cause of death.

Monilar said he already requested Dr. Benjamin Lara, of the PNP Crime Laboratory-7, to do the autopsy, which has to be done before the boy’s burial this Saturday.

Atillo, a graduating elementary student of the Pardo Elementary School, died Tuesday dawn and his father Renato suspected the boy died of hazing.

Renato said that when his son arrived home from school last Friday afternoon, the boy was apparently sickly with bruises in his legs.

The boy might have joined a gang, Renato said citing that the boy had been wearing a scarf in his head, days before his death, which has been believed to be a form of identification of membership of a particular gang.

During the wake, neighbors and barangay officials tried to convince Renato to have the body autopsied but he reportedly refused out of apprehension that he might be forced to spend money that he does not have.

Renato was even reported to have said that his family would not be interested in filing charges against any people who might be behind his son’s death in case it would be established that the death was caused by hazing. — Flor Z. Perolina/RAE