![]() |
Hazing victim Horacio "Atio" Castillo III and the emblem of the fraternity he dreamt of joining |
When I was entering the UP’s
Liberal Arts College decades ago, the university was rocked by the death by hazing of a scion of a prominent family, as well as by wars between the Upsilon
and Sigma Rho fraternities. That was my first exposure to the terrible reality
of hazing. Congress was up in arms and
efforts were made to prevent its recurrence.
Since that time, however,
and up to now, the evil of hazing, conducted in utmost secrecy under the
iron-clad oath of “Omerta,” has reared
its ugly head from time to time---such as what happened to freshman Horacio “Atio” Tomas Castillo III of
the UST Law fraternity, the “Aegis Juris” who died from violent hazing, and who had dreamt of being a lawyer. Unfortunately, however, the uproar and the national breast-beating subsides---until another victim dies.
Police investigations reveal
that Horacio Castillo died from a heart attack after severe beatings with thick wooden paddles on his body. At the funeral
mass at the Santuario de San Antonio Church yesterday, the mass presider, Fr. Winston Cabading, stressed that “A
brotherhood that seeks to harm does not come from God, but from the
devil.” Calling on the young victim’s
man’s parents and friends, he begged them “not
to be buried in darkness when we are filled with anger and hatred.” Fr.
Cabading admitted, however, that to the question of the meaning of young “Atio”
Castillo’s death, “There is no easy answer.”
XXX
When I was a literature
student at the UP long ago, we studied a short story titled, “The Use of Force”
by American author William Carlos Williams, which narrated in first-person how
a doctor, treating a young child of
suspected diphtheria, sought to get some specimen from its mouth. When the
child resisted, the struggle became rather ugly, with the doctor this time
inserting a spoon into its mouth with more force than seemed needed and still
the child refused to cooperate. At that
point, author Williams, himself a doctor, clearly portrayed how the doctor in
the story (was it Williams himself?) transformed “from cool professional to animalistic
assailant.”
In seeking to make sense of the various
hazing episodes that resulted in unintended deaths, should we theorize that there is perhaps this same
element, whereby, even among friends, there is transformation from being
friends to being “animalistic assailants” who lose control of themselves.
This could be the case especially if
the hazing rituals are conducted under the influence of liquor
and very likely even drugs in isolated places like a remote beach resort---plus very little supervision from the frat's elders and the school.
XXX
Consider all the accidents
from hazing:
* State-run military academies
such as the elite Philippine Military Academy in Baguio, the Philippine Marine
Academy and the Philippine National Police Academy all had their past share of
hazing victims. At PMA, plebe Monico de Guzman was believed to have died from
“beat attack” upon seeking entrance in the boot camp. The premiere military
academy continued with hazing in secrecy.
* In some secular schools,
hazing continued to take place as well, and what focused national attention in
February 1995 was the death of a neophyte of the Aquila Legis Fraternity at the
Ateneo Law School named Lenny Villa. His mother carried a brave campaign
against hazing from then on.
* It should be noted, however,
that brutal hazing occurs too in the Ivy League schools in the US. I read an
account by a student of Dartmouth University who spoke not of physical
brutality, but of being sadistically forced to imbibe excrement of all sorts
during hazing.
XXX
The rash of deadly violence
due to hazing prodded Congress to react in the '90s. Following the huge uproar over the death of law student Lenny Villa in initiation rites, Sen. Joey
Lina, then chair of the Senate Committee on Youth and Sports, authored R.A. 8049, “An Act Regulating Hazing
and other forms of initiation rites in Fraternities, Sororities and other
organizations, and providing penalties thereof.” Prior to the passage of R.A. 8049 what was
operative on student organizations was the Revised Penal Code.
As former Sen.Lina recounted to Cecile Alvarez and myself during
our dzRH program, “Radyo Balintataw” last Sunday, hazing is absolutely
forbidden under Sec. 2 of RA 8049, the Anti-Hazing Law. In fact, MERE PRESENCE at such forbidden
rituals is enough to implicate a person as an accomplice to the crime.
Punishment includes life imprisonment or reclusion perpetua; reclusion temporal (17-20 years) and the
lightest, 4 years and one day imprisonment for mere presence at such ritual.
The Supreme Court upheld
circumstantial evidence as stiff in its landmark decision in Dungo vs. People
of the Philippines 2015, raising punishment to nine years.
XXX
Obviously, however, the
current law punishing hazing is still deemed very weak, as physical violations
continue to exist. There is now a clamor to enforce more safeguards in fraternity
initiations, to ensure that physical violence is not resorted to, and elements
of the community, the police, the fiscal’s office and the courts are enjoined
to attend and monitor fraternity activities closely. Cecile Alvarez and I opined that
officials of the school where the fraternity members are enrolled have to be
present at initiation rites.
Morerover, I proposed more
creative ways to undertake initiation rites such as for example, making neophytes dress like garbage collectors and actually sweep trash in the Luneta
or by Manila Bay, or have them garbed in beggar’s clothes and actually beg by
Quiapo Church, the begging proceeds to be donated for soup kitchens.
Any initiation ritual except
violence which kills.