Charges filed vs law students for 'frat war' attack

MANILA, Philippines - Four law students were charged with frustrated murder yesterday for allegedly beating and shooting an Ateneo Law School student in front of his boarding house in Barangay Poblacion, Makati City Friday night, allegedly as part of an ongoing fraternity war.

Makati police chief Senior Superintendent Cedrick Train, in a telephone interview with The STAR, said the alleged attackers of second-year law student Don Albert Philippe Pangcog, 29, “were already inquested” and they are “looking into” the angle that the attack was a result of a fraternity war.

He identified the suspects as Ateneo law students Mark Bryan Magno and Randy Lehaus; and Lyceum of the Philippines law students Mark Lester Magno and Carlos Lim.

Police said Pangcog suffered a gunshot wound in the right thigh and a head wound. He was treated at the Makati Medical Center.

Mark Bryan was arrested at the Ateneo Law School campus in Makati and presented to Pangcog, who identified him as one of his alleged attackers. The three other suspects remain at large.

A spot report prepared by Police Officer 3 Dexter Clarence Fongkot showed that the incident took place at around 10:40 p.m. Friday in front of Pangcog’s boarding house on Palma street in Barangay Poblacion.

Police said the victim had just alighted from his vehicle and was about to open the gate of his boarding house, when the suspects – all wearing bonnets – attacked him with nightsticks.

Pangcog fought back and managed to unmask one of the suspects. He told police that during their struggle, one of the suspects pulled out a gun and shot him.

The suspects then boarded a RAV 4 and fled as the victim’s housemates rushed him to the hospital.

Police recovered two black bonnets; two improvised batons; a lead pipe; a Nike rubber shoe; and a slug and a shell, possibly from a .40 caliber handgun.