THE UST College of Rehabilitation and Sciences (CRS) offered a moment of silence for the late Junver Toledo, the 22-year-old BS Physical Therapy senior who took his life in May, during its solemn investiture rites on June 27.
CRS Regent Fr. Joaquin Valdes, O.P. requested the 272 graduates and staff at the Quadricentennial Pavilion to “pause for a while” in remembrance of Toledo.
“My students, faculty members, parents and relatives, friends, everybody. Today is a great day for our students in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences. Let us all pause for a while in remembrance of…Mr. Toledo that he passed away just a few weeks ago, for a while,” Valdes said.
“Let us, all of us, give applause because Mr. Toledo is already in the Kingdom of God,” he added.
Toledo jumped from his condo unit on May 17 upon learning from a faculty member via Zoom that he had failed a course for the second time. He left behind a one-page note saying he could not endure another failure.
His note indicated that he was supposed to graduate this June. But he supposedly failed the course Clinical Correlation and Team Approach anew, missing the passing mark by just 1.5%.
UST and CRS administrators met with the Toledo family for the first time since the incident on May 30, but his sister, Olive, said official responses were “rehearsed and very calculated.”
Following Toledo’s death, House Resolution 2305 was filed by Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel, Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro in the Batasang Pambansa on June 3, calling for a legislative inquiry into the late physical therapy senior’s death.
