EDITORIAL - All law, no enforcement

Law enforcers arrived when the initiation rites were already underway, but at least the hazing last Thursday in Cavite was stopped and the perpetrators apprehended. Three neophytes, their thighs already black and blue from being repeatedly hit with paddles, were also saved from further beating – the sort of evil violence that killed Tau Gamma Phi neophyte Guillo Servando of De la Salle-College of Saint Benilde last weekend.

Thursday’s hazing by members of a Tau Gamma Phi chapter in Trece Martirez City was stopped because concerned citizens alerted the police. The five fraternity members were charged with violating the Anti-Hazing Law or Republic Act 8049. This law, passed way back in 1995, imposes stiff punishment of up to life in prison for the use of violence in initiation rites for fraternities, sororities and similar organizations. But RA 8049 has gone the way of many laws in this country: largely unenforced.

Servando’s death, along with the hazing in Cavite and another reportedly involving the Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity in the University of the Philippines, should prompt both law enforcers and higher education authorities to revisit RA 8049. The law imposes stiff punishment not only on those who directly participate in violent initiation rites but also on fraternity officials, alumni and even school administrators who condone the hazing as well as the owners of premises where such rites are held.

RA 8049 also imposes certain responsibilities on school authorities to prevent hazing. While the law allows fraternities, sororities and similar organizations to conduct ceremonies to initiate new members, it prohibits the use of violence and any act “placing the recruit, neophyte or applicant in some embarrassing or humiliating situations such as forcing him to do menial, silly, foolish and other similar tasks or activities or otherwise subjecting him to physical or psychological suffering or injury.”

Those prohibitions should be specific enough for law enforcers and school administrators to crack down on anyone or any group violating RA 8049. Yet even sororities now think humiliation and psychological or physical abuse are prerequisites for their twisted idea of sisterhood.

Before more students die and abuses are committed, school authorities must sit down with representatives of the criminal justice system to review the Anti-Hazing Law and see how it can be effectively enforced. It won’t bring back Guillo Servando, but it could prevent others from suffering the same horrific fate.