Law ‘will take its course’ on death of Atio Castillo —CHED chair

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairperson Patricia Licuanan is confident that the "law will take its course" in the investigation on the death of freshman UST law student Horacio Tomas “Atio” Castillo III.

“I think the law will take its course. An act was committed and there was death. Regular rules that apply to these things will follow,” Licuanan said in a press conference at the CHED headquarters on Wednesday.

Apart from reminding schools of pre-existing memorandums against violence in schools, CHED may form a technical working group to amend its 1995 memorandum order on preventive measures against violence and sanctions on fraternities as it promised during the Senate finance subcommittee’s hearing on its proposed 2018 budget.

Under the current CMO No. 4 1995, fraternities found guilty of violent acts will be meted a 60-day suspension.

“I think we should review that and see if we can go further than our existing CMO. Our existing CMO is against violence in general in campuses because it's not just sorority or fraternity hazing, there are other forms of violence,” Licuanan said.

“We should review it and see whether we can maybe form a technical working group to tie up some of these measures and share that with the institutions,” she continued.

Licuanan added that she is personally in favor of amending Republic Act 8049 or the Anti-Hazing Law of 1995.

“I have not studied it but from the sound of it, I do want stricter measures,” she said. “This is not yet a CHED policy, this is my opinion.”

Hazing's negative effects on victims and initiators

Licuanan condemned the death of Castillo and hazing as the practice has been proven by multiple studies to have negative psychological effects on victims and their families including depression, mental instability, post-traumatic stress disorder, and others.

Initiators are also victimized by hazing as “normally decent human beings” are influenced by the anonymity and sadism of the act to inflict harm on others.

“I really believe hazing leads to all sorts of terrible things that are uncontrollable,” Licuanan said.

“I'm a psychologist and I worry also how normally decent human beings could do this to each other. We realized, in some studies, that that atmosphere where hazing takes place, usually a knife, and certain rituals go on, there's a lot of anonymity, you're not identified. Those aggravate the situation and makes violence easier. I am against hazing," she added.

University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law freshman Castillo passed away after allegedly undergoing "welcoming rites" of the Aegis Juris fraternity on the weekend of September 16 to 17. Castillo suffered a massive heart attack due to injuries he sustained during hazing. —KG, GMA News