The Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 was enacted in the aftermath of the hazing death of University of Santo Tomas College of Law student Horacio Castillo III in a bid to prevent a similar fatal initiation rite from happening again.
Five years after, however, hazing deaths still pervade — the latest victim of which was John Matthew Salilig, a chemical engineering student of the Adamson University.
“The current law that we have is stricter than the old anti-hazing law. It prohibited all forms of hazing. It made everyone present at initiation rites punishable by reclusion perpetua, whether actually taking part in hazing or not,” Senator Francis Tolentino emphasized at the recent hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which he chairs.
While the new anti-hazing law was supposed to be stricter, it has not served as a deterrent to violent and fatal fraternity initiation rites.
To prevent a repeat of fatal hazing, Tolentino said there is a pressing need to fine-tune Republic Act 11053 or the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018.
“To give justice not only to the death of Salilig, but the other victims of senseless death due to hazing, the goal of this committee is to craft a policy and come up with a legislation that will ensure that no more senseless death like this will ever happen again in the future,” Tolentino stressed during his committee’s hearing.
Senators Raffy Tulfo and Ronald dela Rosa support Tolentino’s move.
“Unfortunately, the Anti-Hazing Law is not enough. We have to provide it with more teeth to make the fraternities, sororities, and organizations involved in hazing liable and more responsible,” Tulfo said.
To give more teeth to the law, Tulfo wants to hold owners of hazing venues, together with all personalities involved in facilitating fraternity initiation rites, liable and be penalized with reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment to stop these unfortunate deaths.
Dela Rosa, a former chief of the Philippine National Police, believes lapses in the implementation and observance of the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 are the reasons fraternity hazing still exists until today despite having it amended a number of times since it was enacted in 1995.
“If we amend the law again, I believe stiffer penalties should be imposed on schools that fail to implement it, as well as on fraternities, sororities, and other organizations that will continue with hazing practices,” Dela Rosa said.
Perhaps, fraternity members who are now in the corridors of power could lend a hand in implementing the law and in crafting a stricter measure to prevent the recurrence of violent hazing activities. Their influence in their respective fraternities is certainly a big boost in the implementation of the law.
A collective effort is necessary to end these senseless deaths. While there is nothing wrong with brotherhood, in fact this should be encouraged, it should not be promoted at the expense of the life of an individual. Initiation rites should be conducted in a humane way.
With this in mind, we support and encourage the move of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, led by Sen. Tolentino, to add more teeth to the current Anti-Hazing Law.