Zubiri eyes mandatory disclosure of students' fraternity, sorority membership

Senate President Miguel Zubiri on Monday is considering requiring students to declare their membership in fraternities or sororities after the death of Adamson University student John Matthew Salilig by hazing.

“If we now compel under the law, the schools and the students to mandatorily declare if they are members of fraternities or not maybe that would help,” he said during a hearing of the Senate committee on justice and human rights.

Zubiri said that students will disclose their fraternity membership through an entry form.

Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges legal counsel Luzviminda Rosales said Zubiri’s suggestion would help schools since they are not aware of the students’ involvement in fraternities.

“I think that would be of great help to the universities so we will have knowledge whether there are students who are actually members of the community-based fraternities,” Rosales said.

“That's really the problem among universities. We're not in fact knowledgeable of whether these students  are actually members.... So universities sometimes are at a loss in that regard,” she added.

Senator Raffy Tulfo suggested imposing stiffer penalties on officials of involved fraternities, Philippine Military Academy, and Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) found liable for any hazing incident.

“Akin pong suggestion na batas na gagawin reclusion perpetua sa superintendent ng PMA sa ngalan ng command responsibility…pati PNPA,” he said.

During the hearing, the senators and resource persons also discussed the proposal of imposing reclusion perpetua on individuals found to have presumptive knowledge on hazing activities.

They also discussed the possibility of penalizing involved schools. The collected money will be used to provide financial assistance to the victims’ families during the prosecution of the case.—LDF, GMA Integrated News