Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Following its former student’s viral Facebook post recounting the supposed hazing she said she experienced when she joined a student organization, the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP-CMC) released a statement on Thursday (March 3) to “strongly denounce the dehumanizing practices of hazing.”
According to Republic Act No. 8049 or the Anti-Hazing Law, hazing is used by a group — often a school fraternity, sorority or organization — to screen new members by subjecting applicants to physical or psychological suffering, including forcing them to do foolish tasks that embarrass and humiliate them.
Hazing is also associated with the initiation rites in the Philippine Military Academy and Philippine National Police Academy.
A UP-CMC alumna recounted the alleged psychological and physical abuse she experienced when she joined a student organization five years ago.
To be considered a bonafide member of the organization, which she did not name, she had to undergo a cruel and degrading application process that gives her nightmares until now.
She said she tried to quit at least twice during the initiation period, but each time the members of the organization were able to persuade her to change her mind.
All throughout the initiation, she was screamed at, cursed, and made fun of by the organization’s members and alumni.
She said the worst part was the so-called final rites, when she was blindfolded with 5-peso coins pressed against her eyes for 12 hours, made to eat a whole red chili pepper, spoonfuls of coffee powder and some weird food mixes, and ordered to strip naked, and perform physical exercises while members doused her and at least two other applicants with cold water from a swimming pool.
“The worst thing they did was place a dog’s penis on my mouth,” she said.
She survived the hazing and was accepted as a member of the group, but she felt alienated from its members.
“After a few months of being active, I hid from the world. I couldn’t see them as people who I can be real friends with. I couldn’t see the purpose of everything I went through,” she said.
At the end of her post, she called on the UP administration to stop the hazing in student organizations.
“To the orgs and UP admin, I hope you don’t wait until someone commits suicide because of the pressure of applying for orgs like that,” she said.
Her post has been shared over 4,000 times to date, and received more than 11,000 reactions.
Only one conviction under PH’s Anti-Hazing Law
The UP-CMC encouraged hazing victims like her to file formal charges to initiate a thorough investigation so that sanctions may be imposed against those involved.
“Hazing has no place in a university that upholds honor and excellence; hazing has no place in a nation that respects and protects the dignity of man,” the UP-CMC said.
Despite numerous complaints in the past, the first convictions under the Anti-Hazing Law passed in 1995 were on August 21, 2015, when two Alpha Phi Omega members were sentenced to reclusion perpetua, or imprisonment from 20 to 40 years, for the death of UP Los Baños student Marlon Villanueva in 2006.
