• Hazing Deaths Database:
  • Blog
  • Storytelling
  • Bio
  • High School Sexual Hazing Incidents
  • Campus Speaker: Hazing & Binge Drinking
  • Hank Nuwer: selected media coverage
  • World Hazing Incidents
  • “Hazing,” “Sons of the Dawn,” “Legend of Jesse Owens”

Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site

Follow me on Social Media

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Mendez was unresponsive and past saving when brought to ER: News report from Philippines

September 3, 2007 By Hank Nuwer Leave a Comment

NBI to summon UP hazing victim’s fratmates, doctors

09/04/2007

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday said it would summon five more individuals who may yield essential information on the case of the murdered University of the Philippines (UP) student, believed to have died by hazing.

Among those who will be sent subpoenas by the NBI’s Anti-Terrorism Division (ATD) are Dr. Francisco Cruz, Dr. Daphne Gascon, Dolores Geronimo, Ariel Paolo Ante, Fuzzy Clemente and Rina Reyes.

Cruz, a medical consultant, was the one who brought victim Cris Anthony Mendez to the Veterans Memorial Medical Hospital (VMMC) while Gascon was the physician who attended to the victim.

Geronimo, VMMC administrative officer, and the victim’s schoolmates Ante, Clemente and Reyes, will also be called to shed light on the case.

The bureau earlier sent a subpoena to a certain Jonathan Garduce, who yesterday appeared before the NBI.

Garduce is the security guard on duty at the VMMC when Mendez was brought to the hospital during the early morning of Aug. 27.

According to Garduce, around 1:08 a.m., Cruz, along with his son, arrived aboard a Toyota Innova car with license plate SAB-393 and immediately brought Mendez to the hospital’s emergency room.

Minutes later, three more cars arrived at the hospital: an Isuzu Trooper, a Toyota Corolla with license plate WGL-515 and another Isuzu car with license plate XAS-548.

Garduce said those who rode the cars met with Cruz and talked to him before leaving at 2:10 a.m.

At this point, the security guard said he noted Cruz looked “restless and troubled” as the doctor frequently went in and out the hospital.

Around 2:30 a.m., Cruz left the hospital but went back 45 minutes later.

By 4 a.m., an L300 van from the St. Peter Memorial Chapel arrived at the hospital to take the body of Mendez.

Garduce, whose duty at the VMMC is from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., said he even took a glance at the body’s release papers which bore the name “Mark Anthony Mendez,” not “Cris Anthony Mendez.”

The NBI has recently stepped into the case of Mendez after the victim’s grandfather sought the help of the bureau’s National Capital Region (NCR) office.

The NBI’s NCR and ATD said they are now coordinating with the Quezon City Police District and with the officials of UP regarding the case.

Mendez, a 20-year-old graduating student, was declared dead-on-arrival at the VMMC.

Reports said the victim was already pale and unresponsive when he brought to the hospital and that he had bruises all over his body, particularly on the back of his arms and thighs.

Meanwhile, earlier news reports said Cruz has a son named “Miko” who studies law in UP and is reportedly a Sigma Rho fraternity member.

The NBI said through the statements of the victim’s friends in the university’s National College of Public Administration and Governance and his co-fraternity members, they would be able to determine if Mendez indeed died because of initiation procedures to the Sigma Rho fraternity.

Rommel C. Lontayao

Filed Under: Hazing News

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Inquiries

Hank Nuwer

Correspondence: Hank Nuwer at Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com   Phone number upon request.  Available presentations USA, … Email to book a date.

Sons of the Dawn

Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey: Hank's novel is for teens 11-18 but also meant to be enjoyed by … Read More

Hazing Deaths Database:

… Read More

Thank you, AFA

New scholarship from Brazil: Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7213/psicolargum.39.103.AO02 Trotes na universidade e violência de gênero: uma revisão integrativa de literatura Hazing at the university and gender violence: a literature integrative review   Novatadas en la universidad y violencia de género: una revisión integradora de la literatura Adriane Roso https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7471-133X Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), adriane.roso@ufsm.br Janine Gudolle de Souza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6477-4190 […]

A Poland-Union City Love story.

Here is the link. Hank   My wife Gosia earned her Green Card in October 2019. She gave eight-weeks’ notice at her chief accountant job in Poland and shipped what she could to Indiana. “Wait, how did a fellow from Indiana meet a Polish lass,” you may ask? I persuaded Gosia in June of 2015 […]

No charges in Cornell hazing death

New York Post

Archives


Hank Nuwer's Hazing Scholarship Site is proudly powered by WordPress