Written by Kristian Timothy Bautista

Ever since the start, the Philippines had its fair share of difficulties in eradicating hazing nationally. Just in the early quarter of the year, a student from Adamson died due to fraternity hazing; the student’s death urged lawmakers and officials to revise and implement stricter laws to prevent more deaths from happening.

With two notable organizations in the university—UP Juniors Marketing Association (UP JMA) and UP Economics Society (UP Ecosoc)—under fire for conducting hazing-like activities, it appears that the university has done nil to prevent hazing and hazing-like activities inside the premises of its campuses. Numerous organizations in the university have contributed to the development and perpetuation of hazing cultures in the country.

The extremities of hazing go beyond one’s reach as hundreds of innocent lives have succumbed because of hazing, which not only occurs in universities but even in military academies with notable victims including Darwin Dormitorio, a 4th Class Cadet of the Philippine Military Academy. From Dormitorio to tens and hundreds of others, hazing paints a bad image of the country; it goes so badly that it can indicate that hazing incidents have become what school shootings are in the United States. It is unsettling to see that organizations like UP JMA set the university backward and its efforts to eradicate hazing culture.

Known as ”the persecution or torture (of) somebody in a subordinate position,” hazing subjects the initiate to physical or psychological harm, which they should tolerate. This culture of inducing harm furthers the stigma of needing to survive initiation rites in order to create new bonds and avoid being socially excluded—such are considered vital needs of a college student during his prime years of university.

Social exclusion refers to the physical or emotional pain from being socially isolated. Humans are naturally social beings who crave interaction among others and form kinships of all kinds, and hazing does the job for students at their most vulnerable times. Peer rejection makes students susceptible to low self-esteem, academic difficulties, antisocial behavior, and other forms of psychological harm, observed in fraternities or organizations that practice hazing-like activities.

The Anti-Hazing Bill, which was first passed due to the death of Ateneo de Manila student Leonardo Villa in 1991, has its fair share of pros and cons—but if there is one thing it is notable for, it is its inconsistency. With loopholes surrounding the bill, it dilutes its main essence of eradicating brutal initiation rites and poses an ineffective order, as observed by the overwhelming number of hazing incidents.

Completely banning fraternities would not be a viable solution as these institutions could always practice underground, which would only potentially account for unrecorded hazing incidents and add fuel to the flame. Additionally, officials push to make penalties harsher, but according to one of the university’s sociology professors, Filomin Gutierrez, laws and school bans on hazing can only do so much; hence the UP JMA and Ecosoc fiasco.

Ironically, it would be better for these institutions to be recognized so they could be monitored closely by the school body and allow the administration to possess leverage on the institutions’ practices and rites. UP should reassess how they monitor their organizations, especially since UP JMA was supposed to be a night handler at the annual UP Fair, with their night championing women and gender advocacy.

While lawmakers scurry to enforce and impose stiffer and harder punishments for hazing, seemingly, fraternity neophytes remain unfazed as hazing continues to be a culture hard to face. Nonetheless, the bill against hazing must be amended, and its flaws corrected, while scholarly institutions ensure that hazing-like activities do not foster and transpire.