President Benigno S. Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Clark Air Base, Pampanga — Why would you hurt someone you call brother? That was the sentiment of President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday in reaction to the recent death of an 18-year-old college student allegedly due to hazing.
“I am not a member of a fraternity but to inflict such harm on people you will call brothers really escapes any logic that I can fathom,” Aquino said after the Philippine Air Force’s 67th anniversary held at the Clark Air Base.
“And I think I would like to call upon all the elders of these various fraternities (and tell them), ‘Even if you had to undergo the same, isn’t it about time that you are the most active in making sure that it stops?'” he added.
However, Aquino thumbed down proposals to fully ban hazing.
“There is an anti-hazing law already in the books,” he pointed out.
The President admitted that the problem may lie in the enforcement of the law.
“So one has to ask, ‘What is lacking in terms of enforcement that prevents us from exercising the full penalties embodied in that law?'” he said.
Aquino said the Philippine government will study how the problem of fraternity hazing can be resolved.
The statement came days after Guillo Cesar Servando, a sophomore student of College of St. Benilde, died allegedly due to injuries he sustained from the initiation rites of the Tau Gamma Phi.
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