Boy, 15, dies in Bacolod ‘hazing’

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – A 15-year-old boy died reportedly of hazing two days after he allegedly underwent a fraternity initiation rite here, his grandfather told a local radio station yesterday.

Kenneth Inventor told Bombo Radyo that his grandson John Kurt Inventor, a junior student of the Abkasa National High School in Barangay Mandalagan, died last Monday.

Inspector Jinky Lou Ramos, chief of the Women and Children Protection Desk, said the boy’s family is seeking justice for his death.

Ramos told ABS-CBN the family initially thought the boy only had a fever. But when he vomited blood, they brought him to a hospital.

Doctors found Inventor had bruises on his back, legs, and arms as well as a stab wound in the back.

Based on his death certificate, Inventor died of septic shock.

The family said they were not aware that the boy was part of any group.

Before he died, Inventor’s father said his son struggled to tell them something. But the victim was only able to make a hand gesture that looked like a fraternity hand sign, he said.