Duterte says hazing in fraternities can't be stopped, a year after signing law against it

MANILA, Philippines — Despite signing a law imposing stiffer penalties on hazing, President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that the practice cannot be eliminated unless fraternities are banned altogether.

"I don’t know what but that is a permanent insanity," Duterte told reporters before leaving for Russia last Tuesday.

"You know ikaw pumasok ka, ‘pag nahuli ka, sorry ka. Hindi mo talaga matanggal ‘yan (If you join and you get caught, sorry. You cannot do away with that). Unless you ban fraternity for all time. Make it a criminal offense by joining a fraternity. But that would raise so many constitutional issues," he added.

READ: Dismissed PMA cadets face anti-hazing law raps over Dormitorio death

Duterte revealed he was hospitalized for three days due to massive hematoma or swelling of clotted blood when he joined the Lex Talionis fraternity at the San Beda College of Law. The president said he and some of his fraternity brothers wrote to their group to do away with the physical initiations but nothing happened.

Hazing in campuses became part of public discussions following the deaths of Philippine Military Academy cadet Darwin Dormitorio and a University of the Philippines student who was tagged in an alleged brutal initiation rite of the Sigma Rho fraternity.

The incidents happened despite the signing of the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018, which prohibits all forms of hazing in fraternities, sororities and organizations in schools, communities,  businesses and uniformed service learning institutions.

READ: Atio’s parents urge lawmakers to list hazing as heinous crime

The law, which strengthened the Anti-Hazing Act of 1995, also punishes those who will try to cover up hazing activities and imposes harsher penalties on those involved in initiations that cause physical or psychological suffering, harm or injury. Individuals who planned or joined in hazing that results in death, rape, sodomy or mutilation will be jailed for 20 years and one day to 40 years and will be fined with P3 million.

"You know, there are rules to follow. You break the rules, you go to jail. That's the way it is. Or you die. Those are simple matters in life," Duterte said.

"But hazing? You can't eliminate that."

READ: Duterte signs stronger anti-hazing law

Duterte said initiations in fraternities should not be excessive and should not be degrading to neophytes.

"Hazing, that is...carried too far, that's human degradation...You allow, you order the (lower class) to perform oral sex, something like that. That's not an act of a man. If he becomes your brod, what would you think of him? What will he think of you? That will create a lifetime animosity," the president said.  

"'Yang tamang-tama lang. ‘Yang ‘pag madala sa ospital, mabuhay. ‘Wag naman ‘yung  mamatay (In case he is brought to a hospital, he should be alive)," he added.  

Duterte declined to comment on the hazing incidents in the PMA, saying it would be up to the academy's officials to look into the matter.

"Do not ask me about that because the administrative case will be sent to me for final (decision). If they seek a motion for reconsideration, the final appeal administratively is to the commander-in-chief, me," he said.