MANILA, Philippines — Compel students to mandatorily declare in their college application forms if they are fraternity or sorority members, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri proposed on Monday.
Zubiri raised his suggestion during the Senate committee on justice and human rights hearing on the fatal fraternity hazing of Adamson University student John Matthew Salilig.
“Do you think that to improve the law, we need to now compel students who enter universities to mandatorily declare that they are members of fraternities para alam ninyo [so that schools would know]?” the Senate President asked.
“The problem kasi [is] and correct me if I’m wrong, there are fraternities that are not school-based. If we now compel, under the law, the schools and the students to mandatorily declare if they are members of fraternities or not, maybe that will help,” he added.
With the declaration form, Zubiri said that learning institutions will know if the student is part of a fraternity or sorority and will have grounds to suspend or expel the student who may get into trouble.
Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges legal counsel Luzviminda Rosales and Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities legal staff Maya Jajalla welcomed Zubiri’s suggestion.
“I think that would be of great help to the universities so that we will have knowledge whether there are students who are actually members of community-based fraternities,” Rosales said, noting that universities are “at a lost” at times on the fraternity or sorority membership status of students.
“The suggestion of Senator Zubiri is helpful because then the schools, our member schools who do not recognize school-based fraternities can know who are members of community-based fraternities,” Jajalla, for her part, noted.
Salilig, 24, died during the welcoming rites of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity in Biñan City, Laguna after he received at least 70 hits.
READ: Adamson student found dead after fraternity ‘rites’
Salilig went missing on February 18. His body was eventually found in Imus, Cavite.
READ: Adamson student died of ‘severe blunt force trauma’