12 frat members expelled over ‘offensive group chats’

Twelve members of the Scintilla Jvris (SJ) Fraternity of the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) were expelled over leaked group chats containing offensive language and materials.

After thorough investigation and deliberation, the UPV Scintilla Jvris Fraternity decided to expel its 12 members namely, Emmanuel James Celis, Kneron Mark Dulay, Darrel Israel, John Adrian Mandario, Ivan Dolf Nena, Nigel Patricio, Danniel San Antonio, Robert Cenmael Solas, Joshua Karl Toribio, Enrico Rafael Valencia, Robert John Vidal and Luigi Zerrudo.

According to a statement by the fraternity, the 12 individuals “blatantly violated” SJ’s Principles when they were involved in the group chat that depicted lewd and indecent content. Portions of the were leaked through Twitter.

“UPV SCINTILLA JVRIS investigatory committee & resident members stand with their previous statement denouncing misogyny, homophobia & sexual violence.  These traits of objectifying women & discriminating against members of the LGBT community are unbecoming of a SCINTILLAN and will not be tolerated in our organization,” according to the statement issued on July 17, 2020.

The scandal broke out when a Twitter account leaked screenshots of the group chat populated by some of the frat members.

The Twitter account has since been deleted.

The group chat contained lewd photos, sexual objectification, sexist remarks, and lewd comments by the former members of the fraternity of women, their schoolmates, ex-girlfriends, and even their friends.

According to SJ, the group chat “was created to be a forum where projects and other academic concerns can be discussed and implemented by some members of UPV SCINTILLA JVRIS.”

“Through time, however, it appears that it had lost its original purpose, as selected portions thereof leaked through Twitter, depicted lewd and indecent content. Notwithstanding the fact that the leaked contents may be subjected to a separate inquiry by proper authorities, what cannot be denied is that it is illustrative of a deplorable character that UPV SCINTILLA JVRIS cannot and will never tolerate.”

The fraternity said it thoroughly investigated the contents of the leaked chats and related posts to reach a decision on the involved members.

“The aforementioned contents, as well as the other related posts and equally serious incidents were collated, investigated, and verified through an internal mechanism of the Fraternity. Each case was individually assessed and after thorough investigation and deliberation, a decision was made taking into account the degree of participation and overall gravity of the offense.”

The investigation indicated that the members concerned violated their organization rules.

“The acts of the persons involved were done consciously, knowingly and freely. It was made without due regard, not only to their status as students and alumni of the University of the Philippines, but also as members of SCINTILLA JVRIS. In the process, they blatantly violated SJ’ Principles, that they should have possessed in whatever they do, whenever and wherever they may be. They were not operating under the instruction of the Fraternity and thus do not reflect the principles of the organization as a whole.”

SJ also consoled those who were affected by the issue.

“We deeply empathize with those who were directly and indirectly impacted by the acts of the aforementioned former members, for their pain and trauma brought about by this unfortunate event, including our sisters in STELLA JURIS and ASTRVM SCIENTIS, whose individual trust and concern for us have been compromised owing to this depressing development.”

The exposé gave courage to survivors of alleged sexual harassments to speak out and share about their experiences on social media.

Several cause-oriented groups and the UPV Administration encouraged the victims to reach out to the authorities for the proper investigation to be ruled out.

Moving forward, SJ vowed to address the issue on a long-term basis by instituting reforms and putting in place mechanisms that will prevent a similar incident from happening.

“The Fraternity is taking steps to face the present challenge and to provide effective mechanisms in order to deter any similar or graver acts and incidents in the future. We will form an internal anti-sexual harassment committee and create amendments to our constitution and bylaws to enforce zero tolerance for this behavior. We have coordinated with the UPV Office of Student Affairs and will cooperate with the Office of Anti-Sexual Harassment to ensure that those involved are held accountable for their actions, under due process. We also extend our assistance to those affected by the actions of the former members.” (ERS)