MANILA, Philippines – A student and Sigma Rho fraternity member yesterday asked the court to stop the hearings being conducted by University of the Philippines officials in connection with the charges filed against him and several other students for the death of suspected hazing victim, Cris Anthony Mendez.

In his petition, Juan Paolo Fajardo, a senior from the UP College of Law, asked Judge Jose G. Paneda of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 220 to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against several university officials.

They included UP President Emerlinda Roman, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Elizabeth Enriquez, the chairman and two members of the Student Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), Diliman Legal Office chief Ma. Ruz Raval and DLO university legal counsels Percival Cortez and Carlo Florendo Castro.

Fajardo said that on Oct. 11, he received three formal charges with summons through the SDT.

The first administrative charge, he said, was in connection with his alleged participation in “initiation rites, including physical and hazing rites..., thereby resulting in or causing physical injury to and ultimately the death of Cris Anthony Mendez.”

Fajardo added that he and 10 other students were charged with violating rule 1 section 1 (B) of the university’s Revised Rules and Regulations Governing Fraternities, Sororities, and Other Student Organizations.

He and 13 other Sigma Rho officers and members were charged a second time, this time for participating in the same unauthorized activities in violation of rule 1 section 1 (I) of the rules and regulations.

Fajardo was charged for the third time, with four other students and fraternity members, for bringing Mendez to the Veterans’ Memorial Medical Center and “hastily” leaving the premises without giving information on the cause of the student’s death.

Mendez, a public administration student of the UP, was declared dead on arrival at the hospital. An autopsy report said he received a heavy beating before his death.

Fajardo said the “formal charges” against him were not true and were “feloniously falsified,” pointing out that he was never notified of the charges; neither has he “participated in any alleged preliminary investigation involving the subject incident.”