In Criminal Case No. 26558 for plunder, the Sandiganbayan issued a resolution finding probable cause to justify the issuance of warrants of arrest for the accused, including Atty. Edward Serapio (MA BA ‘99). The Sandiganbayan then issued an order for the arrest of Serapio, and he voluntarily surrendered to the Philippine National Police. Two days later, Serapio filed an urgent petition for bail. After several interlocutory proceedings, the Sandiganbayan issued a resolution to grant Serapio’s urgent petition for bail to secure his liberty.

Years later, the Sandiganbayan Special Division promulgated a decision declaring that, for failure of the prosecution to prove and establish his guilt beyond reasonable doubt, the Court found Serapio “not guilty of the crime of plunder.” The Court then ordered his acquittal.

Throughout the whole ordeal, however, the Ateneo never released a statement about his predicament, despite Serapio’s being Atenean, having studied in the Ateneo’s college, law school and graduate school between 1978 and 1999. According to Associate Dean for Student Affairs (ADSA) Rene San Andres, the university is only ever obliged to release a statement if they decide that they are accountable for a student under the Code of Discipline, or “the name of Ateneo was dragged [into the issue].”

While San Andres says that the most common offense students commit in the Ateneo is cheating, he considers this as a precursor to a crime of a much larger scale: Corruption.

The Office of the ADSA, however, has certain protocols to ensure that students who commit disciplinary offenses are rehabilitated and, ultimately, helped before their tendencies worsen.

Crime—committing crime, prosecuting crime and curing an institution of crime—in the Ateneo is a sensitive topic, and, just like anywhere in the world, criminals are turned over to the authorities. “[But] if you’re a student,” San Andres says, “you’re under our care.”

A case study

In the summer of 2014, Christine*, a junior, was accused of stealing a significant sum of money from a student’s backpack in the New Rizal Library. She says that she committed the crime because she thought she “could walk away with it.”

A few weeks later, she received a phone call from an ADSA discipline officer, asking her to visit their office to discuss “an important matter.” Christine attempted to pull it off as a prank gone wrong, saying that she mistook the bag as her friend’s. After a month, she confessed the truth, and was subjected to a hearing. Another month later, a verdict was reached and the Ateneo gave Christine the following sanctions: Suspension for 10 consecutive school days, 80 hours mandatory work service, mandatory guidance counseling, public reprimand and probationary status until graduation.

Atty. Helena Sy*, a public prosecutor and a lawyer in government service, says that many of the young criminals she has encountered who were accused of stealing possessed an impulse control disorder. Christine says that the mandatory guidance counseling helped get her back on her feet.

Looking back at the way ADSA handled her case, Christine recognizes that the office had indeed followed the correct protocol and respected her. The Ateneo provided her with counseling after the incident, allowing Christine to regard her sanction as “a blessing” in disguise. “ADSA kept telling me that they were not the enemies, but friends,” she says.

While Christine has since been able to “[move] on from the trauma and the terror” of her actions, she still feels “exposed to public criticism and judgment” because of her public reprimand. “ADSA told me my case would be displayed for only two weeks to a month,” she says. According to her, the document remained on ADSA’s discipline board for 10 weeks.

The crime Christine was accused of—theft—is included in the Philippines’ Revised Penal Code. According to Article 308 of the code, theft is the taking of personal property that belongs to someone else, given that the taking was done without the consent of the owner, without violence or intimidation, and with the intent to gain.

Despite Christine being of legal age, she was never given up to local authorities who recognized theft as a crime. Instead, the Ateneo intervened.

If there are factors affecting the physical, emotional and mental well-being of a student and their actions, or a troubled student is “in need of special assistance” or “needs help rather than punishment,” the Ateneo may exercise their right to provide and protect the members of its community.

Criminality in question

San Andres is quick to point out that ADSA handles different types of cases, hardly any of them considered “criminal.” Law enforcers use a criminal approach, while educators enforce a formative approach.

The formative approach the Ateneo uses emphasizes the role of the student in the incident—if the student should be considered a criminal or a victim of circumstance, if the student should be considered one with special needs, or if the act itself is the problem or a symptom of a more troubling issue.

If a student were to be discovered in possession of drugs, for instance, it could and should be treated as a criminal case. However, San Andres says that the Ateneo’s formative role is emphasized and exercised in every case reported to the university. The university focuses on the “development of the individual.” The Ateneo’s paradigm for discipline is “restorative justice” through community service or guidance counseling. If the student continues to act out, ADSA then implores the help of experts, such as the Ateneo’s partner psychiatrists who would be willing to aid the student pro bono.

If a student is ever considered a criminal, it is only by the aggrieved party affected in the case and not by the Ateneo.

When a traffic or criminal incident happens within the Ateneo campus, it is considered as having occurred within Barangay Loyola Heights, Quezon City. The aggrieved party could report the incident to the police at the Anonas station, and then file an affidavit of complaint with the Office of the City Prosecutor of Quezon City, which holds jurisdiction over the place where the crime was committed.

There are, of course, instances when an act that can constitute a criminal offense is committed, yet the aggrieved person opts not to file an affidavit of complaint and to keep his peace. There is no law that compels an aggrieved person to file an affidavit of complaint. Just as a person has the right to bring a grievance before the court, he also has the right to desist from filing a complaint against the supposed “criminal.”

Asked about recent “criminal” cases brought to the attention of the Ateneo administration, San Andres points to a recent issue of physical assault between two students, a case still being processed in court. “The father of the student who was assaulted wouldn’t get appeased by anything,” he says.

Judges and officers of the court—lawyers, including public prosecutors and court staffers—are all involved in the administration of justice. It is their objective to see that justice is served. In the criminal justice system, the prosecutor has the duty to determine the existence of probable cause and the discretion to determine whether or not a case should be filed in court.

According to Sy, if a criminal act is committed on campus, it is considered as a violation of a school rule or the school’s handbook, and can also be considered a violation of law in the Philippines or Quezon City. However, the final decision on which law to follow “depends on what the act is.” If it is plagiarism, for instance, it can be considered a violation of school rule alone. If it is something as drastic as murder, then it must be dealt with in court.

An article dated February 25, 2015 published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer narrates how the Court of Appeals recently dismissed pending homicide cases faced by three former Ateneo students. The students were involved in the death of Leonardo Villa, an Atenean law student who passed away as a result of fraternity initiation rites or “hazing” in 1991.  The cases were dismissed due to the proceedings’ “unjustified delays, which were not attributable to the petitioners.”

Sy asserts that the prosecutor’s duty is not to convict, but to see that justice is done. An Atenean going through the criminal justice system should not be regarded any different from any other subject of the court.

“By seeing that justice is done,” Sy says, “we are able to serve society.”

Paradigm of peace

“Molestation, stealing—[they] are just symptoms,” says San Andres. According to him, a significant number of cases he has had to deal with can be attributed to a family’s “overparenting” or “underparenting” of their children.

San Andres serves as vice president for Private Universities and Colleges of the Philippine Association of Administrators of Student Affairs. Throughout his term, he has continued to emphasize the importance of the family’s role in the formation of students, considering many of the problems he has encountered with students have had to do with their own families.

Apart from the family-centric factors that come into play with regard to crimes committed by and against members of the Ateneo community, San Andres has noticed that the Ateneo also belongs to a certain socioeconomic profile—that which allows members of the community to commit specific violations of the law because they can afford to do so. A student could have a lot, materially speaking, but lack just as much in terms of “being.”

While the Ateneo takes on a formative role when dealing with its students, the same cannot be said of cases against outsiders. San Andres personally brings non-Atenean thieves to the Anonas police station, but is then disappointed when students usually decide not to push through with filing cases against the accused, which he says, is typically the case. According to him, some students would rather not involve themselves with criminal cases for their own safety as well.

While Christine was waiting for her mother’s meeting with the ADSA authorities to end in the office, she looked up from the ground and saw a quote on the wall: “There was never a wrong time to do the right thing.”

Christine was afraid of confessing what she had done, but she also wanted to clear her conscience. She wanted to do what was right. “Fear—for the consequences and for the unjust judgments—keeps us grounded,” she says.

According to San Andres, students should be “Ignatian” and “discerning” while making everyday decisions. It is through Ignatian values that Ateneo advocates the “paradigm of peace and order,” avoiding violence and promoting well-being while “forming people to be decent individuals.”

San Andres explains that, at the end of the day, “Kakampi kami sa students (We will take the students’ side).”

Editor’s Note: Names have been changed to protect the interviewees’ identities.

Edited: Mar. 31, 2015 at 10:06 PM