Solon urges UP to come clean on alleged fraternity hazing incident

The University of the Philippines (UP) administration should reveal everything it knew about the reported instance of fraternity hazing in the university involving the Sigma Rho Fraternity, an author of the Anti-Hazing law said Friday.

“We expect full transparency and full disclosure of all details about this hazing case in accordance with law," said Ako Bicol Representative and lawyer Alfredo Garbin. "Privacy protection options are limited, considering that the individuals involved would no longer be minors and would not be covered by the Juvenile Justice Act.

“Nothing less than a full-scale investigation and public hearing is necessary to confront directly the latest reported incident of hazing in the long and plagued history of fraternity violence in the University of the Philippines.”

A Twitter post of a supposed UP student who survived a Sigma Rho hazing and who was then threatened with even more physical punishment if he spoke in public about the ceremony recently went viral.

The Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 requires that the head of the school or an authorized representative assign at least two school representatives to any initiation ceremony. Furthermore, the law requires that the school representatives see to it that no hazing takes place during the initiation rites, and to document the entire proceedings.

The law also made it clear that the school representatives would not be held liable if a hazing still took place, despite their presence, “unless it is proven that they failed to perform an overt act to prevent or stop the commission thereof."

“The law has several provisions on what school authorities can and should do against erring fraternities and school administration officers. Likewise, there is nothing in the law that prevents UP President Danny Concepcion from preventively suspending the entire Sigma Rho Fraternity or to ban them once and for all from the University, should these actions become necessary in his judgment as University President,” Garbin pointed out.

Garbin also called on the Commission on Higher Education to closely monitor the progress of the hazing situation in UP Diliman and to make sure that the Anti-Hazing law was enforced to its full extent.

In assisting UP, Garbin said that CHED, with the help of the National Privacy Commission, Department of Justice, and Department of Information and Communication Technology, should require Twitter to submit all electronic evidence of this recent hazing incident involving the UP Sigma Rho Fraternity. — DVM, GMA News