Tau Gamma urges suspects to surrender as Remulla issues warning

Philstar.com

March 6, 2026 | 12:15pm

MANILA, Philippines —  Tau Gamma Phi's spokesperson faced the media beside Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Friday, March 6, and publicly urged their members to surrender in the hazing death of 19-year-old Mark Kenneth Alcedo. 

One of the neophytes who survived the same initiation rites has submitted a sworn confession naming all 21 people involved, Remulla said during the press conference, and authorities have issued an all-persons lookout bulletin for 20 suspects still at large.

"A mere declaration that they're against it does not insulate them from charges," Remulla said at a press briefing in Quezon City, referring to a manifesto the fraternity's senior leadership had released denouncing violence. "I expect full cooperation and for the full extent of their capacity that they help the [Philippine National Police] locate the 20 suspects."

Alcedo, a first-year student at the Philippine Nautical and Technological Colleges in Dasmariñas City, was subjected to initiation rites along with at least two other neophytes in an open field in Dasmariñas on March 1.

He was later brought to the General Trias Medical Center due to his wounds and was pronounced dead on arrival. The fraternity members allegedly involved had fled before the police could interrogate them, but CCTV footage had captured their faces, according to reports.

An autopsy found that the freshman died of severe blunt force trauma to the lower extremities.  

Remulla said Tau Gamma Phi, which claims around one million members, has no excuse for failing to locate and hand over its own. "This will not go unpunished," he said. "We will go after all of them."

The DILG chief also warned that the consequences could be worse for those who resist arrest. "Don't wait for the PNP to find you. It might get worse," he said. "It's better that they surrender than we chase them down."

The suspects

Of the 21 people identified, Remulla said 17 have been named, three remain unidentified, and one — Alcedo himself — is the victim. One suspect, a 23-year-old fourth-year maritime student who drove Alcedo to the hospital, surrendered to General Trias Mayor Luis Ferrer IV on March 3 and admitted to participating in the hazing.

All will be charged under Republic Act 11053, the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018, which punishes those who planned or participated in hazing that results in death with reclusion perpetua — up to 40 years in prison — and a fine of P3 million.

String of deaths

Alcedo's death is only the latest in a long string of fatal hazings tied to Tau Gamma Phi.

Remulla himself noted Friday that this was the second hazing death in Cavite linked to Tau Gamma in just three years. In February 2023, Adamson University student John Matthew Salilig, 24, died after receiving 77 paddle blows during initiation rites conducted by Tau Gamma members in Biñan, Laguna. His body was found in a shallow grave in Imus, Cavite. 

Seven fraternity members were indicted under the Anti-Hazing Act; their case is pending before the Biñan City Regional Trial Court.

Remulla, himself a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity at UP Diliman, earlier claimed that hazing had mostly disappeared from established university-based fraternities. "It's in the barangays," he said during a briefing earlier this week.

Convictions are rare for hazing deaths. The most recent verdict meted out was in October 2024, when a Manila court sentenced 10 Aegis Juris fraternity members to reclusion perpetua for the 2017 hazing death of UST law freshman Horacio "Atio" Castillo III — a verdict that took seven years. Castillo's death was what prompted the 2018 amendment to include stiffer penalties for the anti-hazing law. — Cristina Chi