Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri (R) and Senator Sherwin Gatchalian (SENATE PRIB PHOTOS)
MANILA, Philippines — The indictment of seven Tau Gamma Phi fraternity members linked to the death by alleged hazing of Adamson University student John Matthew Salilig serves as a stern warning to those who continue the harmful tradition of hazing – no one can get away from the law, said Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
In separate statements, the two lawmakers welcomed the decision of a panel of Department of Justice prosecutors who found probable cause to indict the seven suspects for purported hazing during the welcoming rites that took the life of Salilig and injured neophyte Roi Osmond dela Cruz.
“This serves as a cold warning to our fraternities that the Anti-Hazing Law is at work and that when you commit a crime, the long arm of the law will find you and justice will be served,” Zubiri said.
He went on: “Sa mga pasaway at patuloy na nagsasagawa ng hazing, sinisiguro ko sa inyong wala kayong ligtas sa Anti-Hazing Law. Haharapin niyo ang batas, at mabubulok rin kayo sa kulungan.”
(For the delinquents who continue to do hazing, I am sure that you cannot get away from the Anti-Hazing Law. You will face the law, and rot in jail.)
Gatchalian echoed Zubiri’s sentiments by urging the Filipino people to join Salilig’s family in “staying vigilant until justice is served and those who violated the law are held accountable.”
“The message to those who continue committing hazing should be loud and clear: that they will not get away with their ghastly crimes and their mockery of the law. The culture of violence masked as brotherhood should stop now,” he said.
Gatchalian was among the senators who pushed to give more teeth to the Anti-Hazing Law back in 2017 in view of the brutal death of University of Santo Tomas law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III allegedly in the hands of members of the Aegis Juris fraternity.
Then-President Rodrigo Duterte later signed the amendment to its 1995 version, which now bans “all forms of hazing in fraternities, sororities and organizations in school, including citizens’ military training and citizens’ army training.”
READ: Duterte signs law that bans all forms of hazing
The death of Salilig–whose battered and decomposing remains were found in a shallow grave in Cavite after supposedly undergoing hazing–sparked talks of revisiting and amending the Anti-Hazing Act again to put in place stiffer penalties for school administrators, fraternities and even owners of venues where violent initiation rites are conducted.