Angela Pearl F.

Salcedo August 24, 2019

2nd year - Dr.

Mark Welson Chua

He was a son, a student, and a hero who chose to expose the corrupt system of the

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in his university, University of Sto. Tomas. This was

the reason why they chose to end his life.

He was a second year engineering student who wrote a letter to the office of the school

regarding bribery, hazing, and harrassment in ROTC. With this, the officials in ROTC was

relieved of their positions and was reinstated at a later date which made Mark more determined

to chase them out of the system. Because of this, the officials in ROTC planned to silence him.

As they carry out the plan, they made Mark think that what they were doing were all part of the

initiation.

At first, I think it was brave of him to act on his ideals. That he was right on doing what

he thought was best at that time. It made a great impact on the ROTC today and many people

think he was a hero for doing what he had done to expose the system. He have done well in

fighting the “norms” of the ROTC wherein officers collected a huge amount of money from

students who do not wish to be a part of it, and such. However, I think he should have thought of

a smarter way to stop it. There must be a way wherein he should’ve been alive today. His story

was painful to hear, especially to his parents and relatives. They planned a future with him and

now he’s gone. They don’t need a hero, what they need is their family who they cherished the
most. They worked so hard for him, and I don’t think he deserved to be put through so much

pain.

I also think the suspects weren’t the only ones involved since there is a lot of money

involved in this corrupt system of ROTC. Well, they could’ve been stressed that they cannot get

enough money from the members now that Mark won’t stop bugging them or that their higher

ups are scolding them for not doing their job ‘right’. And that may have pushed them to instigate

his murder. However, I don’t think stress is enough for them to carry out the plan. There may be

a psychopath among the suspects which pushed all of them to carry out the plan. I believe that

every human being has a conscience, which is why there were two of the suspects who testified.

If they don’t have a conscience, they could have sliced all his body parts and scattered it

throughout different areas so as to avoid being identified by the authorities. It’s a good thing they

didn’t do it. However, it does not change the fact that the victim suffered a great deal of pain

while being suffocated to death, and thrown away at the river.

For the person speaking in the video, I felt gratefulness in him that he was forgiven by the

father of Mark Chua. It was very meaningful to him that he was able to turn over a new leaf. It

was never easy to forgive someone especially when they have done something wrong to their

loved ones. However, Mark’s father was able to do it because he know that the man regrets his

actions and that he may be able to give a new life to the man who was haunted by his conscience.