NOW that the President has signed an anti-hazing law, we are hopeful it would be enforced seriously. Hazing is becoming a perennial problem and is preying on our promising youths and students.
The Department of Interior and Local Government must now prepare the implementing mechanisms for the strict monitoring and enforcement of the law in schools and even in barangays. Out-of-school youth and students in junior high school and senior high school are especially prone to invites from frats and gangs.
Here’s another perspective on fraternities, gangs and hazing. Frats and gangs could get involved in illegal drugs or resort to hold-ups of taxis and jeepneys as initiation rites for neophytes. The link between neighborhood frats and gangs and juvenile crime is a clear and present danger to our communities. Frats and gangs can be used by organized crime engaged in human trafficking, illegal drugs, and prostitution of children and teenagers. Crime syndicates are well aware of the minimum age of criminal responsibility stated in the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. Barangay and school principals must therefore work together and apply their child protection policies effectively and pro-actively. They must be on the alert against frats and gangs.
There are gangs and fraternities that behave like criminal syndicates because of their code of silence and use of violence in the enforcement of discipline and their distorted principles of brotherhood. Some of these fraternities and gangs have become incubators and breeding ground for criminal masterminds and thugs who prey on the weak, the poor, and the defenseless.
The effective implementation of the anti-hazing law will be another way for government to reduce crime near our schools, on the streets and close to our homes. We can save more lives, the lives of our youth.
