Senate panel eyes making all frat members, founders punishable for hazing-related deaths
MANILA, Philippines — A Senate panel is pushing to amend the country's anti-hazing law to hold entire fraternities accountable for deaths resulting from their initiation rites.
The joint committees of justice and human rights and public order also wants to automatically cancel the Securities and Exchange Commission certificate of a fraternity or sorority and designate it as an illegal organization at the first incident of a hazing-related death or injury.
In a committee report containing the Senate joint committee's proposed amendments to Republic Act 11053 or the Anti-Hazing Law Of 2018, it recommended to "make the fraternities, sororities, and other organizations principally and solitarily liable for any death or physical injuries that result from any of the initiation activities of their organization."
Committee Report 9 drew its recommendations from the findings of the Senate probe on the death of Adamson University student Joh Matthew Salilig in March. After members of Tau Gamma Phi inflicted severe injuries on Salilig during the organization's hazing rituals, the student was found dead in a vacant lot in Cavite in February.
P20 million fine, founders held liable
In the committee report, the Senate panel recommended the imposition of a P20 million fine on all fraternities, sororities and organizations over any injury or death that will result from its violent initiation rites. The organizations will also be required to "shoulder the litigation fees of the victim's family," according to the committee report.
This would make the organizations "jointly and solidarily liable" to the families of the victims, the report added.
The Senate panel also recommended the automatic revocation of an organization's SEC certificate from any death or physical injury that will result from its initiation rites. This would tag the fraternity, sorority or other groups as "an illegal organization,” making its current members, officers and even its founders punishable by law.
Other proposed amendments to the anti-hazing law recommend increased transparency through registration requirements. According to the committee report, all fraternities, sororities, and similar organizations, whether affiliated with schools or not, should be required to register their local chapters, along with the list of their officers and members, at the local police station.
The Senate panel also recommended the creation national database by the Philippine National Police to compile membership information from fraternities and sororities across the country. Failure or refusal to comply with these requirements would be considered a presumption of illegal activities by the organization, the committee report stated.
The Senate committee also reiterated the responsibility of schools in holding mandatory orientations with students and their parents or guardians to prevent hazing.
Failure to comply may result in a fine of P5 million and denial of autonomous status by the Commission on Higher Education with the fine being allocated to a Trust Fund for hazing victims' support, the proposed amendments read.
Culture of violence hit
The committee report said that its proposed changes to the Anti-Hazing Law — which was already revised in 2018 following the death of another fraternity neophyte — should hold organizations accountable by targeting the root cause of violence within their culture, rather than solely punishing individual perpetrators.
“It is the tradition of these organizations of using violence as a requirement for admission and retention of membership in its supposed "brotherhood" that is causing the deaths in these organizations. Thus, we should not leave the fraternity out of the equation when we talk of liability,” it added.
But it’s not enough to impose fines as penalties to address fraternity-related violence as “the payment of money is too small a price for the forever loss of a single life,” the report added.
“In other words, a hazing-related death in the organization must result in the death of the organization itself,” the committee report read.
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