Fraternity Hazing - uso pa din?

[mazdamazda]

source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryID=90429

UP assures justice for hazing victim

The Philippine Star

The University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City assured the family of graduating student Chris Anthony Mendez on Wednesday that it will bring “those responsible for his death to face the bar of law.”

In a statement, Chancellor Sergio Cao said UP Diliman “strongly condemns” the incident and extends its condolences to the family of Mendez, who is suspected of having died due to fraternity hazing on Aug. 27.

“UP Diliman strongly condemns the use of violence s a pre-requisite for admission into any organization. It firmly believes that the constitutional provision on the freedom of association ends when life is sacrificed for the fraternity values of barkada and pakikisama,” he said.

According to Cao, rules and regulations governing the conduct of student organizations have been in place and strictly enforced since 1976, or way before the passage of the Anti-Hazing Law (Republic Act 8049) in 1995.

He said successive UP Diliman administrations have even added teeth to these measures in order to make them more responsive to the dynamics of the current interaction among student organizations in the campus.

“Human life, as the ultimate cost in any rite of passage, is an utterly unacceptable price to pay for brotherhood: such distorted values have no place in an institution of higher learning like UP,” Cao said. “Yet the culture of violence continues to exist. It has to stop.”

He appealed to the fraternities, particularly their alumni, “to take the lead in transforming the culture of violence into more productive endeavors to benefit the university and society.”

The 20-year-old Mendez, who was taking Bachelor of Science major in Public Administration, was declared dead on arrival at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center early Monday.

Initial reports disclosed that he was brought to the hospital by a man identified as “Dr. Francisco Cruz.” The man was reportedly in a white van with license plate ZAB-393, which was followed by two other vehicles, among which was another van with license plate XAS-548.

Reports said Mendez was already pale and unresponsive when he reached the hospital, and that he had bruises all over his body, particularly on the back of his arms and thighs.

Mendez, who hailed from Tiaong, Quezon, is the eldest in the family.

[XTO]

IMO Yes, the latest fatality being UP's Chris Anthony Mendez. As long as young people keep fooling themselves that torture is a way to loyalty and fraternity is hip because it alienates one group from the rest of humanity, stupidity as hazing will persist.

[Taurus]

Human life, as the ultimate cost in any rite of passage, is an utterly unacceptable price to pay for brotherhood:

Oh men, :headache: when will these craziness stops.

[Bogeyman]

He was trying to get into the Sigma Rho fraternity. Since his major was Public Administration, I assume that he had plans of proceeding to Law. I noticed that students planning to take up legal studies are very prone to joining law fraternities and sororities, if only to ensure their survival in this highly competitive field.

As of yesterday, members and officers of Sigma Rho are already in hiding.

This reminds me of Alex Icasiano's death by hazing almost a decade ago, when he was trying to get into the Alpha Phi Beta fraternity. An orgmate of mine, who is also a member of APB, was among those implicated in his death, but was eventually cleared.

[nicolodeon]

Ako personally eh not in favor of fraternities or sororities for that matter pero alam ko naman na maraming fraternities at sororities ang matitino.

Hazing is part of a fraternity culture and could very well have been in place since the inception and formation of any fraternal "brotherhood". However, the logic of hazing escapes the lump of lard on my cranium because I don't see how hitting a poor schmuck 30x times with a 2x4 or a paddle the size of JLo's arse could amount to any sort of brotherly love. Show of manliness or courage perhaps? Personally, I don't think so because being a man and showing courage does not equate to one's earthly body being pounded like a lettuce just for the sake of saying then claiming "Hey, dawg! I'm tough. Bring it!"

I've known a couple of gentlemen who have joined fraternities in their college years and did ask them about hazing a while back. If my these RAM chips in my head serves me right, I believe their answer was: "Para makaganti kami. Alangan namang kami lang ang huli? Not fair.". So, my question to them was if the act of hazing was fair to those being hurt and to the parents of the young boys in case they perish in the act. One said no but it mentioned it is (hazing) is a fact of fraternity life while I distinctly remember the other one having a more calous answer: "It's their problem. Sumali sila eh."

[Bogeyman]

http://services.inquirer.net/express...85464-xml.html

Doc holds key to UP stude’s death
August 30, 2007
Updated 01:48:59 (Mla time)
Jeannette Andrade
Inquirer


MANILA, Philippines – The police are looking for Dr. Francisco Cruz, the man who took Chris Anthony Mendez, a suspected hazing victim and graduating student of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center at dawn Monday where he was declared dead on arrival.

Supt. Oscar Palisoc, Quezon City Police District Station 9 commander, told the Inquirer yesterday that they have been trying since Tuesday to reach Cruz after he was identified by a hospital security guard as the one who took Mendez to the VMMC.

“Our police investigators at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit are looking for him because he is the key to helping us find out what happened to the UP student,” Palisoc said.

According to the police, Cruz is a doctor at the VMMC. But he has not reported for work since the incident and has not responded to calls made to his cellular phone either, they added.

Mendez, 20, a public administration student who was appointed just last week to represent his college—the National College of Public Administration and Governance—in the UP Student Council was brought to the hospital at 1:08 a.m. Monday by Cruz and several other people.

The victim bore bruises all over his body, especially on the back of his arms and thighs. Unresponsive and pale, he was declared dead on arrival by an attending doctor minutes later.

From the hospital, Mendez’s body was taken to the St. Peter’s Memorial Chapels on Quezon Avenue where his mother proceeded from Tiaong, Quezon after she received a phone call about her son from someone who said she was her son’s landlady.

A police investigator told the Inquirer that they have already identified a student who is suspected of having recruited Mendez into the UP Sigma Rho fraternity.

The source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to talk to media about the case, said that they would invite Ariel Paolo Ante, the NCPAG student council chair, for questioning.

Ante, the source said, reportedly asked Mendez’s friends to wish him good luck “for the initiation” which was to take place over the weekend. Mendez was a member of the NCPAG student council.

UP officials and students have refused to identify the fraternity Mendez allegedly joined before his death.

In a statement, UP Chancellor Sergio Cao extended the university’s condolences to the victim’s family. “We sternly urge the officers, members and alumni of the concerned fraternity to extend their full support and cooperation to the University and the authorities to swiftly bring this case to its just and proper resolution,” he said.

According to the security guard on duty at the hospital at the time Mendez was brought to the VMMC, Cruz was on board a white Toyota Innova (ZXB 393) while his companions were on board two vehicles: an Isuzu Trooper (WGL 515) and a Nissan Frontier (XAS 548).

A check with the Land Transportation Office showed that the Trooper is registered to Beda G. Fajardo, of Cubao, Quezon City while the Frontier is in the name of the Babybon Export Inc. in Muntinlupa City. The pick-up was listed as being used by a certain B.L. Santos.

A member of the UP community who asked not to be identified confirmed the information from the LTO and said that the vehicles were being used by two UP students with the same surnames as the vehicles’ registered owners.

The source added that at around 3 a.m. Monday, one of Mendez’s classmates received a phone call from an unidentified caller who was using the victim’s cellular phone. According to the caller, Mendez’s body was at St. Peter’s. Mendez did not have his cellular phone, automated teller machine cards and personal belongings when he was brought to the hospital.

UP Student Council president Shahana Abdulwahid said the entire student body and the council strongly condemn what happened to Mendez.

“Until the organization that we believe is involved in this breaks its silence, our speculation that the group had something to do with the death will not be dispelled,” Abdulwahid said.

She added that they have been trying to talk to the officers of the fraternity to no avail. The Inquirer also tried to reach the Fajardo home and that of J Castro, Sigma Rho Council of Elders president, for comment, but was told that the parties were not home.

NCPAG Dean Alex Brillantes, meanwhile, said he would meet with members of the UP Student Council and the student body to urge those who knew what happened to Mendez to come forward. “We want to find out how Chris died. The entire UP community wants to find out and we are supporting any investigation of his death,” he told the Inquirer.

[Chip]

Ako personally eh not in favor of fraternities or sororities for that matter pero alam ko naman na maraming fraternities at sororities ang matitino.

[/I]

+1 And why can't the school admin and government do anything about hazing? This is the nth case. Cguro kelangan may mamatay na anak ng politician or someone in power. But then again, hindi yon papahirapan ng frats.

[chain]

in response to the question, yes.. usong-uso pa din ang hazing sa frats.

some frats have doctors at hand pagdating sa hazing. and in this one frat, I particularly remember that they adhered to this no open wound policy. kaya ayun, puro pasa na lang ang abot ng mga neophyte. (CLUE: the death caused by hazing from this frat was one of the first that generated a wild media buzz.)

as for the sigma rho hazing death, most likely na ginawa ang hazing sa QC area. even UP refuses to speak publicly about it. very sad.

anyway, saw some kids na nag-inuman sa 'min before. saw the hazing marks. medyo kadiri nga.

[MAXBUWAYA]

Way back early 2000

We Joined a rowing team consist of APO frat members

Though we were never a frat member.

In fact we actually did a lot of decision making in the group.

And we also have fun bullying new members, pretending we are one of the very high members
something like SuperUltra senior member.


Hazing sucks for me.

[Galactus]

My 2 cents.

It takes 2 to tango. I feel sorry for the kid and esp. his parents, but why in heaven's name would he want to join a frat?? Kahit nga sa PMA, hindi mawala-wala ang hazing, dyan pa sa Peyups. He knew what he was going into, and he should have backed out.

P.S. I'm not a frat member, never joined because it never appealed to me. During my 1st year sa Peyups Manila, andaming nagre-recruit sa akin, TOM, Alpha Sigma, etc. Kahit nung nag-summer din ako sa Diliman, may mga nagre-recruit pa rin, but I turned them all down. I felt then I didn't need a frat to survive, and besides the physical pain of initiation helped a lot in my decision.