8 Special Reports
Editor: Neil Jayson N. Servallos
APRIL 5, 2018
Kin of slain ROTC victim still cry for justice
2 suspects remain at large 17 years after Mark Welson Chua’s killing By ARIANNE AINE D. SUAREZ and LOUISE CLEINDALE PENERA
IT’S BEEN 17 years, but the family of Mark Welson Chua never lost hope “full” justice would eventually be attained for the killing of the former UST Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) cadet, as two of four suspects remain at large to this day. “Partial justice lang ‘yung binigay, hindi full justice. Hindi ko alam kailan ko matatanggap ‘yong full justice, kung mayroon mang justice ang Pilipinas,” Mark’s mother Amelita Chua told the Varsitarian. Chua, then a 19-year-old mechanical engineering student, disclosed to the Varsitarian in January 2001 the corruption in the University’s ROTC program together with his fellow cadet Romulo Yumul. Chua’s exposé was published in the Varsitarian’s Feb. 21, 2001 issue. The story titled “Struggle Against the System” cited the formal complaint of Yumul and Chua that caused the relief of Maj. Demy Tejares from duty as commandant of the ROTC unit, and other Department of Military Science and Tactics (DMST) officials. Chua went missing the following month. His father Welson received a call claiming Mark had been kidnapped. The caller asked for a P3-million ransom. Two days later, on March 18, 2001, Mark’s decomposing body, rolled in a carpet, was fished out of Pasig River; his hands and legs hogtied and his face wrapped with silver duct tape. “Hindi naman ako nawawalan ng pag-asa kahit hindi na ganun kainit ‘yung kaso. Kasi naniniwala ako sa karma e.
Kung hindi man sa life na ‘to, ‘yung responsible sa pagpatay kay Mark e babayaran din nila,” Amelita said. In 2004, Arnulfo Aparri, one of the accused in the case, was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He was also ordered to pay the family P50,000 in indemnity. When the death penalty was abolished in 2006, Aparri’s sentence was changed to life imprisonment without parole. Eduardo Tabrilla, another accused, pleaded guilty to homicide in 2006. Two others, Paul Tan and Michael Rainard Manangbao, remain at large. Amelita said there had been no significant developments in the case. Pursuing Tan and Manangbao required a huge amount of money that the family did not have, she said. Mark’s father, Welson, died in February 2006. “As of now, ‘di ko na alam kung sino lalapitan ko kasi lahat siguro noong time na [buhay] ‘yong daddy ni Mark, nilapitan na niya lahat. If kayo nasa kalagayan ko, if you’ve been in my shoes, ano, sino na?” she said. Mark’s death brought clamor for the abolition of mandatory ROTC, resulting in the passage of the National Service Training Program law that offers other service options that do not involve military training. In 2016, the Department of National Defense (DND) called for the reimposition of the mandatory ROTC program. President Rodrigo Duterte approved the DND’s proposal to restore mandatory ROTC for Grades 11 and 12 in public and private schools in February last year. A bill is set to be deliberated in Congress to amend Republic Act 7077 or the Citizen Armed Forces of the Philippines Reservist Act before mandatory ROTC can be enforced in Grades 11 and 12.
Student participation in charter change sought By MA. CONSUELO D.P. MARQUEZ THE COMMISSION on Higher Education (CHEd) is eyeing student participation in the process of amending the Constitution, following the creation of a Consultative Committee (Con-Com) to recommend changes to the 1987 charter. CHEd tasked 112 state universities and colleges to form public forums to help students assess the effects of the overhaul in the Constitution’s educational and economic provisions. Prospero de Vera III, CHEd officer-in-charge, said the goal was to generate discussions on charter change among students and teachers. The new charter will not only install a federal government but also support the improvement of the educational system, he said. “Because one frustration that a lot of people have about discussions on federalism is that we’re only talking about the political side. [We] should also engage on the more substantial side—how will education look like, how will social work look like, what are the economic realities in the region,” de Vera said during the first Philippines-United Kingdom Transnational Education Conference last Feb. 16. Fr. Ranhilio Aquino, one of the 20 Palace-appointed members of the Con-Com, urged students to question the government’s plans and motives in amending the charter. Changes to Constitution are expected to be taken up by Congress as a Constituent Assembly later this year. “[Students] should ask us to tell them what the Constitution is being changed for and that will boil down to the basic difference of a unitary government and a federal government,” said Aquino, the San Beda Graduate School of Law dean. Former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares called on students to watch out for provisions that would allow foreign ownership of schools, citing the proposed draft of the new charter under Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 8. “In the 1987 constitution, Filipino citizens are allowed to control, own and supervise the educational institutions in the country. But under the RBH 8, it would be open for foreign ownership and transnational corporations,” Colmenares told the Varsitarian. Colmenares said foreign management of universities would pressure school administrators to impose tuition increases and curriculum shifts due to corporate influence. “Aside from effects on tuition increase, the foreign investor’s curriculum would also be followed and nationalism or Filipino identity would be at risk,” he said. Article 13 (G), Section 20 (2) of the RBH 8, filed on August 2, 2016, will mandate Congress to pass laws allowing foreign control of schools and other educational institutions. “Educational institutions […] shall be owned solely by citizens of the Philippines or corporations or associations at least sixty per centum of the capital of which is owned by such citizens, unless otherwise provided by law,” the article read.
Article 12, Section 10 of the 1987 Constitution allows Congress to pass laws on foreign ownership and reserve at least 60 per cent of capital to Filipino citizens. Despite to the foreign equity provisions in the RBH 8, the consultative body still seeks to maintain the regulation of foreign investments on industries as stated in the 1987 Constitution, Aquino said. “The only things that the [Con-Com] will change are those able to operate in a federal government. Since that [foreign capital] provision really has no direct bearing on a federal government, I don’t think that would be changed,” Aquino told the Varsitarian. UST Political Science professor Edmund Tayao, also a Con-Com member, said loose policies on admission of foreign investments would compromise national security. “Even if you open up [schools] to foreign ownership, you should be able to qualify it in such a way [they] would not be in the control of the foreign investors,” Tayao said. Tayao said the committee had yet to conduct deliberations on economic provisions but assured the public that the panel would “not leave anything to chance.” Under the proposed federal government, each of the 18 regions of the country would be granted autonomy, which could allow more economic opportunities for local governments. ‘Weak charter education’ Edmundo Garcia, one of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, said the reason for Filipinos’ “apathy” toward charter change was the majority’s lack of awareness of the what the charter contains. “First educate ourselves on the present constitution; 73 percent of our people are still not aware of our 1987 Constitution so there is this obligation to study it and discuss it and discern whether we need a new constitution right now,” he told the Varsitarian in a chance interview. A 2016 Pulse Asia Survey showed that 73 percent of Filipinos have little or no knowledge of the constitution while 27 have substantial knowledge on the charter. Dennis Coronacion, UST political science department chairman, echoed Garcia, saying a “diluted syllabus” under the new education curriculum had worsened the ignorance of Filipinos on the Constitution. “The syllabus is diluted and has very weak component of the constitution. […] If 70 percent of the Filipinos are only aware of the Constitution, what more if you are going to dilute the component of the Constitution in the syllabus,” Coronacion told the Varsitarian. In June 2015, the Department of Education moved the Constitution component of the Philippine Politics and Governance course to senior high school. It can only be taken by students taking the Humanities and Social Sciences strand.
Mark Welson Chua
FILE PHOTO
The University posthumously awarded Mark the San Lorenzo Ruiz Medal in June 2001 for “showing exceptional and exemplary courage in standing up for the truth and Thomasian ideals,” which his father before he died.
Easter
FROM PAGE 1
Coronel urged parishioners to set aside their own “rock” which might hinder their faith in God. “Ano ang mga bato na nakahadlang para tayo ay mabuhay? Salubungin natin ang Panginoon sa ating puso. [T]ayo ay mga Easter people [at] may mga problema tayo pero harapin natin ito sa pananampalataya,” Coronel said. The traditional “Salubong” procession depicting the reunion of the Risen Christ and the Blessed Mother was held inside the University before the Mass at dawn on Easter Sunday. Good Friday a time for ‘understanding the troubled’ UST Vice Rector for Finance Fr. Rolando Castro, O.P. said Good Friday is not only a time of solemnity with the Lord, but also a time of pausing and understanding the troubled. “The crucifixion of Jesus is to send out a demonstration of God’s love for us […] This holy day beckons believers and non-believers alike to open their hearts to him
PH Rise FROM PAGE 9
in April 2012 after the Philippine Navy discovered eight Chinese fishing vessels carrying illegally-gathered coral reefs and other marine life in the shoal located at the West Philippine Sea, or South China Sea as claimed by China. In July 2016, The United Nations Arbitral Tribunal ruled that China had “violated the Philippines’
in humble trust,” Castro said in his homily during the commemoration of the Lord’s passion at the Santisimo Rosario Parish. Castro, prior of the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas in UST, stressed that the cross symbolizes the Lord’s sacrifice to cleanse man of sin, and that Good Friday is a time both for believers and sinners. “We can believe that our sins hold no ultimate power over us because they were meant for the cross by God, continuing to love us in our worst of worst […] The cross assures us that our sins have a remedy,” Castro said. Jesus Christ’s passion and death on the cross show’s God’s “unprecedebted response of love,” he added. “Today, we venerate the cross with truth, because… it also shows us God’s unprecedented response of love, a love that is like no other. [H]indi kailan man magwawagi ang kasalanan, hindi kailanman magwawagi ang kamatayan,” Castro said. CHRISTIAN DE LANO M. DEIPARINE, LADY CHERBETTE N. AGOT, MAREM A. DE JEMEL and PEARL ANNE M. GUMAPOS
sovereign rights” over West Philippine Sea by building artificial islands and blocking Philippine fishing in the region. “With China, it is very hard because we do not know its plans. It is a country we cannot decipher. Like ngayon sa Benham Rise, ‘yong names na ginagamit nila sa geographic landmarks, gusto nila ‘yon ang gamitin internationally,” Pavia said.