Author of Anti-Hazing law: It's not easy to punish people involved in hazing

Former senator Joey Lina, the author of the Anti-Hazing Law of 1995, admitted on Monday that it is very difficult to file charges against individuals who were supposedly involved in hazing rites.

"It's very difficult to identify, charge and punish those who were involved in hazing because you have to prove, number one intent to commit a wrong among the legal... number two we have to prove that the person accused was the one who inflicted the injury whether it resulted in physical or psychological injury," Lina said during the Senate probe on the death of Horacio "Atio" Castillo III.

"It's a question of the entire criminal justice system. A law is only as good as it is enforced or implemented. This Republic Act 8049 precisely crafted by the 9th congress to address a gap in our legal system. What is that gap? There is no crime called hazing whether in the revised penal code or under the special laws," Lina added.

Senator Miguel Zubiri earlier pointed out that the current Anti-Hazing Law has loopholes that allow suspects to be acquitted.

The senator said he wants all forms of hazing to be prohibited as the current law only regulates it.

Under the Section 3 of the anti-hazing law, "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 (7) days before the conduct of such initiation.

"The written notice shall indicate the period of the initiation activities which shall not exceed three (3) days, shall include the names of those to be subjected to such activities, and shall further contain an undertaking that no physical violence be employed by anybody during such initiation rites," it added.

It further states in Section 4 that penalties include life imprisonment if a person dies after being subjected to hazing.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, for his part, filed Senate Bill 199 in 2016, which includes a provision that instead of castigating fraternities, sororities, or organizations involved in the death of new recruits, it would prohibit hazing per se, or the very act of hazing.

The bill only allows initiation methods that do not inflict direct or indirect physical or psychological injury on neophytes. — BAP, GMA News