This hazing must stop

The senseless deaths of promising young men – the latest of whom is 22-year-old law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III – because of this absurd stupidity called hazing must stop!

The so-called rite of passage that a member has to endure before he is accepted as a brother in any of these Greek-sounding societies only serves as an opportunity for members to indulge in their violent and sadistic streak as they submit these neophytes to vicious beatings, not only with their hands but with paddles and other objects. It won’t also be too farfetched to say that more often than not, the most enthusiastic of these hazers are those with psychological problems or carrying a chip on their shoulder, unloading their latent hatred and insecurity on neophytes – on some stupid reason like they are good looking or are from “de buena familia.”

Obviously, someone can’t be right in the head if he takes pleasure in torturing and seeing another person go through insufferable pain – like what they did to Atio, dripping candle wax on many parts of his body, using the young man as an ashtray judging from the numerous cigarette burns on his skin. During my days in school, there were also initiations but not the murderously physical kind that seems to have become the norm among many of these fraternities that are supposed to be the bastion of brotherhood. Many also find it galling that fraternity members look down on the unaffiliated (non-fraternity members) and pejoratively label them as “barbarians” – when it is clear that these frat guys are the ones who are barbaric and brutal.

It is understandable when a man dies because he is doing his duty to protect this country – like our brave heroes of Marawi, but it is totally heartbreaking to see a young man with so much promise – die – for what? To be included in an elite society that subjects you to unendurable pain and beats you to death before they call you brother?

I totally understand how emotional Senator Migz Zubiri is over the issue of hazing, correctly pointing out that it is totally unfair for parents to lose their children to “untrammeled machismo ending in injury and senseless death.”

“Brotherhood (or sisterhood) should not be realized at the expense of the lives and the future of our youth. We should stop these senseless deaths,” Migz said, calling for the repeal of the Anti-Hazing Law of 1995 (Republic Act 8049) which in its present form only “regulates” the practice and therefore allows it to a certain extent. Migz wants hazing to be completely banned, to stop the senseless killings that have turned many young men – and also women – into nothing but additional statistics of unsolved crimes.

The anti-hazing law that regulates initiation rites and prohibits physical harm and violence against neophytes was a direct result of the death of Ateneo law student Leonardo “Leny” Villa in 1991 because of the beating he received from members of the Aquila Legis during a hazing rite. In the 22 years since the law was enacted, only one has resulted in a conviction, with cases dropped by the judge supposedly due to insufficient evidence – although many suspect that the “brotherhood” (or sisterhood) network may have come into play in such decisions.

One of the early cases of hazing deaths that received widespread media coverage was that of Mel Honasan – a brother of Senator Gringo Honasan – in 1976. Mel was a 19-year-old college freshman at the time – a good looking, bright young man who, in the words of his sister Alya, “died before he had the chance to become a father himself or even a husband.”

Like Atio Castillo, Mel was the sole neophyte, and he had to go through the gauntlet (or the Indian run) – usually composed of two rows of fraternity men armed with paddles and other objects, until he reaches the other end where the master of initiation (MI) waits. Once a neophyte reaches the MI, the initiation rite ends and he is embraced in the fold as a brother. In some of the hazing accounts told me, some especially vicious frat boys do not stop the beating even if the neophyte is already past the gauntlet and safe in the arms of the MI, so to speak, because they feel that the neophyte has not suffered enough.

That a hazing death happened with the Aegis Juris fraternity in UST – a Catholic school that espouses non-violence – makes it doubly appalling. My parents went to the medical school of UST – a supposedly conservative university whose core values include compassion, competence and commitment. There was certainly no compassion displayed with the kind of physical mauling that the 22-year-old young man was subjected to. Neither was there any competence in the way they handled the initiation rite, especially on the part of the MI who should have been able to put a stop to the beatings when it became obvious the young man could no longer take it. As one social media commenter put it – what kind of men are these who aspire to be lawyers and yet have already become criminals?

Parents send their children to UST because they believe it provides a safe environment that is conducive to learning – but it won’t be safe as long as there are sadists hiding behind the façade of brotherhood but in reality, are on the prowl for young people to victimize like Horacio Castillo III. His parents worked hard to give him the best gift ever – a good education. One can only imagine the pain they are going through.

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