So young, so gone

EYES WIDE OPEN

- IRIS GONZALES

In my college days back in UP, I heard and saw firsthand quite a number of incidents of fraternity-related violence.

Once, I went to a party hosted by a college batchmate at her residence not too far from the Diliman campus. One of the guests was a frat man and at the time, there was an ongoing war between two rival fraternities, both UP organizations.

Sometime that evening, all the fun, the banter and the merrymaking we were enjoying was rudely interrupted by the loud banging of a vehicle being smashed by truncheons; of metal being destroyed and glass shattered.

When we dashed out of the house to check, it was too late. As it turned out, a group of young men belonging to a rival fraternity drove by my college batchmate's house to destroy and attack the frat man's car parked a few steps away from the gate. By the time we realized what had happened, the men had boarded their getaway car and disappeared into the darkness.

Another incident I distinctly remember was the death of Niño Calinao, a senior UP Journalism student who was shot and killed sometime in February 1999, after being mistaken for a member of a rival fraternity. He was the son of a jeepney driver and was the brightest hope of his family to ease out of poverty.

These were such senseless deaths.