PNP to seek Interpol help in locating 1 of 3 primary suspects in hazing victim’s death

Ralph Trangia (LinkedIn profile)

(Eagle News) — The Philippine National Police will ask the Interpol’s help in locating one of the primary suspects in the death of hazing victim Horacio Castillo III.

This is what Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa told  reporters on Thursday, after the Bureau of Immigration said Ralph Caballes Trangia  already left for Taiwan a day after the agency issued a lookout order against him and 15 other members of the Aegis Juris fraternity.

Castillo died of a heart attack due to massive trauma as a result of injuries believed sustained during the fraternity’s hazing rites.

“Sana nasa Taiwan pa siya ngayon, hindi pa naglipat sa ibang bansa,” Dela Rosa said after visiting an injured policeman at the Chinese General Hospital.

According to Dela Rosa, they would also seek the cancellation of Trangia’s passport “so he will be an undocumented alien in Taiwan  and Taiwan authorities will be forced to deliver him back to the Philippines.”

Surrender

As for the other suspects, Dela Rosa said he hoped they would surrender.

“Makonsensiya naman kayo. Alam ko na hindi kayo masasamang tao, hindi kayo kriminal. Siguro nadala lang kayo sa bugso ng damdamin o challenge of manhood sa fraternity. Nachallenge lang kayo kaya nagawa n’yo ‘yun,” Dela Rosa said.

He said they should not “avoid the problem, but face it.”

If they did not surrender, the police chief said they could still be arrested as part of ongoing police operations.

If they resist arrest, he said they would have “no other recourse but to defend ourselves.”

“(But) I’m sure hindi maglaban ang mga tao na iyan dahil educated yan, law students ‘yan e…. Edukado ang mga ‘yan, kapag na corner ‘yan susurrender agad ‘yan,” Dela Rosa said.

Apart from Trangia, his father Antonio and John Paul Solano were named primary suspects in the death of Castillo.

The elder Trangia is the registered owner of the red pickup police said was used to take Castillo to the hospital.

It was Solano who claimed to have found Castillo’s body in Tondo, Manila over the weekend.

But barangay officials disputed his account, citing footage from a closed-circuit television camera that showed there was no body in the area at the time Solano claimed he saw it.