Lim warns Manila students vs joining fraternities

If he did it, so can other students of city government-run schools in Manila.

Following the death by hazing of San Beda College of Law student Marc Andre Marcos which came just a few months after that of schoolmate Marvin Reglos, Mayor Alfredo Lim Monday warned students, particularly those of the city’s public schools, against forming or joining fraternities.

“A violation of the said policy will automatically [lead to their] dismissal,” Lim said as he directed Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) president and concurrent secretary to the mayor Rafaelito Garayblas; City College of Manila president Sol Arbolaruda and Division of City Schools superintendent Dr. Ponciano Menguito to ensure that all high school and college students would be  made aware of the city’s intent to strictly enforce the policy.

“Students need only to concentrate on their studies to finish their chosen courses and joining fraternities is not a necessity for them to make good in school or create friends,” Lim said, adding that he himself finished law school without joining a fraternity.

He likewise directed Garayblas, Arboladura and Menguito to ensure that fraternities would not be able to recruit members from the city-run schools and to make sure that these recruitment efforts would be “nipped in the bud.”

As for PLM, Garayblas said that “there [was] no reason for any student to feign ignorance of the said prohibition” as the ban on fraternities in the school is clearly spelled out in the student manual.

Police earlier said that the battered body of Marcos, 21, was rushed to De La Salle University Medical Center in Dasmariñas City, Cavite, around 10:30 p.m. on July 29 by two still unidentified men and two women named Marlen Guadayo and Soledad Sanda. The victim was pronounced dead the following day.

Police have been looking for Gian Angelo Veluz, tagged as one of the master initiators of the Lex Leonum fraternity, and 30 other people believed to have taken part in the initiation rites that allegedly took place on the Veluz family’s farm in Dasmariñas City.