Senate may craft new law to address hazing; total ban unlikely

The Senate may craft a new law to address the rising number of hazing incidents in the country, some of them with fatal consequences, Senator Gregorio Honasan said on Wednesday. "Sa tingin ko we will be able to adequately respond to this if we can craft a better law or amend the weak provisions of the existing law," Honasan, chair of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said in an interview after the Senate inquiry on hazing. He quickly noted, however, that he is not inclined to ban hazing as a whole. "A total ban can be considered but it is too drastic a move. What we want to do here is to calibrate it para we proceed carefully, slowly but surely, para mas long-term ang effect," he said. But Honasan said he saw the need for a new law after several resource persons gave their suggestions during Wednesday's hearing. 'Misleading' phrasing Former Sen. Joey Lina, the original author of Republic Act 8049 or the Act Regulating Hazing and Other Forms of Initiation Rites in Fraternities, Sororities, and Other Organizations, admitted during the inquiry that there were some "imperfections" in the law. He specifically cited the title which says that the measure just seeks to just regulate hazing, which he said is "misleading." "[The law's] body itself [says] that hazing is a criminal act. The law is sufficient as a whole but there is no harm if the title is amended, corrected even," he said. He likewise said that there is a need to clarify section 2 of RA 8049 which says that "no hazing or initiation rites in any form or manner by a fraternity, sorority or organization shall be allowed without prior written notice to the school authorities or head of organization seven days before the conduct of such initiation." "That phraseology leads to confusion because the words 'hazing' and 'initiation rites' are used interchangeably, but the second sentence says that...hazing per se is banned if you interpret it," he said. RA 8049 defines hazing as "an initiation rite or practice as a prerequisite for admission into membership in a fraternity, sorority or organization by placing the recruit, neophyte or applicant in some embarrassing or humiliating situations such as forcing him to do menial, silly, foolish and other similar tasks or activities or otherwise subjecting him to physical or psychological suffering or injury." No physical contact Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, for his part, said a mechanism is needed to prove the activity that occurred, who were present, what they were doing, and who was the subject of hazing. "I think this is the starting point to be addressed in crafting a law," he said. Under existing laws, schools are required to assign at least two representatives to be present during the initiation rites. "It is the duty of such representative to see to it that no physical harm of any kind shall be inflicted upon a recruit, neophyte or applicant," it said. But Enrile said that a "responsible officer" of the organization must also be present, along with a record of where the rites will be conducted. He quickly noted that it must also be ensured that there will be no physical contact during the rites. "For lawyers to become killers or criminals themselves, they do not deserve to be lawyers," he said. Enrile said he himself was subject of hazing but without any physical contact and that there was always a senior member of the fraternity to witness the rites. The Senate president also agreed that there must be a registration of fraternities and sororities as suggested by San Beda rector-president Rev. Father Aloysius Ma. Maranan. Code of silence Quezon Police Chief Superintendent Erickson Velasquez and National Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Medardo De Lemos also asked that provisions be inserted in the law against fraternities' and sororities' "code of silence." "The problem is how to break the code of silence among the members and even witnesses," said Velasquez. "It's true that initial difficulty in the investigation is the silence of the members of the fraternity involved in the hazing," added De Lemos. "We have difficulties in identifying the members who participated in the hazing. Most of the time, in our experience, the witnesses who gathered [were] not members of fraternities," he said. De Lemos also said that there must always be a medical practitioner present during the rites. Honasan said that all these suggestions will be taken into consideration. "This cannot be a unilateral decision on the part of [the] committee," he said. - BM, GMA News