MANILA, Philippines – The son of Dr. Francisco Cruz, who took suspected hazing victim Cris Anthony Mendez to a hospital where he was later declared dead on arrival, did not appear at the National Bureau of Investigation yesterday.

Instead, Miguel Francisco, Cruz’s son, sent two lawyers who submitted to the bureau a letter invoking his right to remain silent.

Cruz earlier asked NBI officials to give his son, who is nicknamed “Mico,” up to yesterday to present himself to the bureau.

“We advised our client to invoke his right to remain silent in connection with the reported ‘hazing initiation,’ ‘mauling’ and death of Mr. Mendez pursuant to Article III Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution,” lawyer Abdiel Dan Fajardo, Mico’s lawyer, told the NBI.

Mico reportedly brought Mendez to their house in Congressional Village, Project 8, Quezon City, before the latter was rushed by the older Cruz to the hospital.

The young Cruz is believed to be a member of the Sigma Rho, a fraternity at the University of the Philippines, which, according to the police, conducted the initiation rites in which Mendez is suspected to have died.

“That’s his right,” said lawyer Romulo Asis, chief of the NBI Anti-Terrorism Division, referring to Mico’s nonappearance. “But it doesn’t mean we’re facing a blank wall as far as our investigation is concerned. We have other means of gathering evidence which we think would strengthen our case against those we deemed responsible for Mendez’s death.”

The older Cruz appeared at the bureau last week to give a sworn statement. The NBI, however, did not release any details about his statement.

Mendez was declared dead on arrival at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center on Aug. 27. The findings of an autopsy report showed that he was beaten up badly because of numerous bruises found all over his body.

Meanwhile, Quezon City Police District investigators are eyeing the involvement of two lawyers in Mendez’s death.

They said that they were able to establish that apart from some 15 UP students, most of them members of the Sigma Rho, two lawyers were also present during the initiation rites allegedly conducted in a house in Bonifacio Village, Barangay Pasong Tamo, Pingkian, Quezon City last Aug. 25 and 26.

Supt. Franklin Mabanag of the QCPD Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit asked the Inquirer not to reveal the lawyers’ names to avoid jeopardizing their operations.

All he would say was that the two were Sigma Rho members who graduated from UP in 1996.

Mabanag added that most of the suspects they were investigating were from influential families with deep roots in the fraternity.

The UP Diliman student disciplinary tribunal (SDT) is still hearing the administrative charges filed by the Diliman Legal Office against 12 officers and members of the Sigma Rho fraternity for misconduct in the form of hazing and lack of respect for university rules governing students.

Among the respondents were four College of Law students: Cruz’s son, Mico; Marcelino Veloso III; Keefe Eldrick de la Cruz and Juan Paolo Fajardo; National College of Public Administration and Governance students Ariel Paolo Ante; Jose Bernardo Clemente; Reginald Agustin and Ryan Baccay; College of Engineering student Andrew Selah de la Rosa and College of Social Sciences and Philosophy student Jose Andoni Santos.

The SDT, the Inquirer learned, will summon the students to allow them to defend themselves before the body.