You can’t eliminate hazing – Duterte

MANILA, Philippines — Despite signing a law imposing stiffer penalties on hazing, President Duterte has admitted that the practice cannot be eliminated unless fraternities are banned altogether.

“I don’t know what, but that is a permanent insanity,” Duterte told reporters before leaving for Russia last Tuesday.

“You know, if you join and you get caught, sorry. You cannot do away with that. Unless you ban fraternity for all time. Make it a criminal offense by joining a fraternity. But that would raise so many constitutional issues,” he added.

Duterte revealed he was hospitalized for three days due to massive hematoma or swelling of clotted blood when he joined the Lex Talionis fraternity at the San Beda College of Law.

The President said he and some of his fraternity brothers wrote to their group to do away with the physical initiation but nothing happened.

Hazing in campuses again became part of public discussions following the death of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadet Darwin Dormitorio and a University of the Philippines student who was tagged in an alleged brutal initiation rite of the Sigma Rho fraternity.

The incidents happened despite the signing of the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018, which prohibits all forms of hazing in fraternities, sororities and organizations in schools, communities, businesses and uniformed service learning institutions.

The law, which strengthened the Anti-Hazing Act of 1995, also punishes those who will try to cover up hazing activities and imposes harsher penalties on those involved in initiations that cause physical or psychological suffering, harm or injury.

Individuals who plan or join in hazing that results in death, rape, sodomy or mutilation will be jailed for 20 years and one day to 40 years and will be fined P3 million.

“There are rules to follow. You break the rules, you go to jail. That’s the way it is. Or you die. Those are simple matters in life,” Duterte said.

“But hazing? You can’t eliminate that.”

Duterte said initiation in fraternities should not be excessive and should not be degrading to neophytes.

“Hazing, that is...carried too far, that’s human degradation... You allow, you order the (neophyte) to perform oral sex, something like that… that’s not an act of a man. If he becomes your brod, what would you think of him? What will he think of you? That will create a lifetime of animosity,” the President said.

“In case he is brought to a hospital, he should be alive,” he added.

Duterte declined to comment on the hazing incidents at the PMA, saying it would be up to the academy’s officials to look into the matter.

“Do not ask me about that because the administrative case will be sent to me for final (decision). If they seek a motion for reconsideration, the final appeal administratively is to the Commander-in-Chief – me,” he said.

The PMA has yet to initiate dismissal proceedings against the seven upperclassmen involved in the fatal hazing of Dormitorio.

Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner, PMA Commandant of Cadets, said they are coordinating with the Philippine National Police (PNP) regarding the filing of criminal charges against the seven cadets.

Instead of convening the General Court Martial against the suspects, they will be subjected to administrative dismissal proceedings supposedly to fast-track their separation from the academy.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Lt. Gen. Noel Clement, meanwhile, said the discharge orders against the erring cadets are already in place.

“And we also need confirmation from the Office of the President for them to be effectively discharged,” Clement said.

The seven are still under supervision of the PMA while criminal cases against them are being prepared by the PNP, he said.

On the other hand, a senior lawmaker wanted hazing to be classified as a heinous crime.

In filing House Bill 4922, Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez sought to make hazing that results in death, rape, sodomy or mutilation a non-bailable offense.

This would mean the accused in such offense would not be allowed to post bail during trial.

The proposed measure would also disqualify convicts of such crime from eligibility for good time conduct allowance.

Rodriguez, a former law dean, sought to amend the penal provisions of the Anti-Hazing Law.

“These deaths due to hazing should be considered heinous for being grievous, odious and hateful offenses and which, by reason of their inherent manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity, are repugnant and outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized and ordered society,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez also filed House Bill 5007 seeking to declare Feb. 10 of every year as National Anti-Hazing Day. – Edu Punay, Jaime Laude