Fratmen senators also went through hazing

MANILA, Philippines — Several senators admitted yesterday to being subjected to hazing in joining fraternities during their student days, but they do not want the practice to continue and aim to ban it completely under a new law.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Sen. Panfilo Lacson were among those who disclosed their ordeal as the chamber started its inquiry into the hazing death of 22-year-old Horacio “Atio” Castillo III at the hands of members of the Aegis Juris fraternity based at the University of Santo Tomas (UST).

Drilon recalled being “paddled” as a neophyte of Sigma Rho at the University of the Philippines in 1966. Lacson disclosed the physical battering he received as a cadet at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

“I went through it and the only one I attended was my own. Hazing is not a requirement for brotherhood, much less loyalty to a brotherhood. It is an unnecessary and illegal act, which seeks to inflict pain on a fellow human being and satisfy the craving for sadism and brutality in some people,” Sen. Francis Escudero said of his joining the Alpha Phi Beta  as a UP law student.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, a batchmate of Lacson at the PMA Class 1971, did not want to describe his plebian ordeal as “hazing.”

Other senators who have admitted or believed to have underwent hazing were Sens. Richard Gordon and Francis Pangilinan with the Upsilon Sigma Phi, Sonny Angara with Sigma Rho and Antonio Trillanes IV at the PMA.

Gordon said he worked hard to eliminate hazing in his fraternity.

Among those who filed bills to repeal or amend the 1995 Anti-Hazing Law were Sens. Grace Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Joel Villanueva and Juan Miguel Zubiri.

“I am one of those who went through hazing when I joined a fraternity more than 50 years ago. I will support a total ban on any form of hazing,” Drilon said.

Escudero said the law should be made “airtight to leave no room for doubt that it is wrong, immoral and illegal.”

Poe expressed confidence that her colleagues who underwent such an ordeal “who are now themselves parents or grandparents to young children acknowledge the barbarity and senselessness of inflicting severe pain, at the risk of death, on innocent students just to gain membership or recognition in an organization.”

“The only sensible course of action for them, for all of us, is to make sure that Atio’s death will be the last with the strict implementation of the hazing law and the necessary introduction of amendments to give it more teeth,” Poe said.

Gordon said the fraternities should bring out the “best in brothers, not barbarity.”

Zubiri, a friend of the Castillo family and whose resolution prompted the inquiry, earlier announced his plan to file a bill prohibiting hazing.

UST Faculty of Law dean Nilo Divina, who is also a member of Aegis Juris, said there was nothing inherently wrong in joining such organizations but condemned the practice of hazing.

“There’s nothing wrong with joining fraternities… a noble organization. It exists for noble camaraderie, to give support to one another,” Divina told the Senate committee on public order, chaired by Lacson, on Monday night.

“Hazing is wrong in all accounts. But hazing is not synonymous to joining fraternities,” he said.

“It should be banned completely and totally prohibited. But initiations that do not cause psychological harm, physical injury should be allowed. There are many ways of determining neophytes’ resolve to join the fraternity,” he added.

Congressmen, however, wanted to completely ban hazing.

A bill completely banning hazing was endorsed yesterday in the House of Representatives.

The committee on justice approved the proposed Anti-Hazing Act authored by Rep. Bernadette Dy of party-list Bagong Henerasyon a day after the Senate opened its inquiry into Castillo’s hazing death.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, justice committee chairman, said his panel has been considering Dy’s proposal “way before Atio’s death in fraternity initiation rites.”

He said the law student’s death should prompt Congress to make the law against hazing stricter.

Dy said her bill would replace the present law, Republic Act No. 8049, enacted in 1995.

“Our proposal is to completely ban hazing. The present law only regulates it. That’s one difference between our bill and RA 8049,” she said.

Dy said another difference is that the law covers death and physical injury, “while our bill includes psychological injury as well.”

She added that her proposed law would apply not only to fraternities, sororities and other fraternal organizations in schools but also to similar groups in other institutions like the military and the police and those based in communities.

Dy pointed out that her bill retains most of the provisions of RA 8049, including those on penalties.

However, in the case of penalties, she said she added a fine ranging from P50,000 to P1 million in addition to graduated prison terms depending on the gravity of the offense.

The present law provides for a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Dy’s proposed law would allow initiation rites but these would be strictly regulated. – With Jess Diaz