17 charged for hazing death

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – Police formally filed charges of abuse of minors, obstruction of justice and violation of the anti-hazing law against 16 fraternity members and an American national for the fatal hazing of a neophyte last Sunday.

The decomposing body of hazing victim Ronald Sequeña, 19, a Mechanical Engineering student at the Palawan State University, was retrieved by Coast Guard divers in the Iwahig River, some 20 kilometers south of this city, three days after it was dumped there.

Four other neophytes of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity, all minors, landed in hospitals after the initiation rites in Barangay Sta. Lourdes.

Police have under their custody suspects Melly Nolledo, Gianne Verzosa, and American national Robert Violett.

Verzosa reportedly owned the vehicle used to transport Sequeña’s body. Violett was arrested when he visited Verzosa at the city jail. Police are hunting down the officers of the fraternity. – Claudio Daquer Jr.