By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — “Ban all fraternities!”
Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. firmly expressed this stand after a student in Manila, whose father was a Bacolodnon, died from hazing.
Guillo Cesar Servando, 18, succumbed to traumatic injuries after being hit by a paddle on his lower extremities and back.
Servando was a sophomore college student taking up a bachelor’s degree in hotel, restaurant and institution management at the De La Salle–College of St. Benilde.
His father, Aurelio Cesar “Taboy” Jalbuena Servando, was a known businessman and human rights advocate here. Their family used to own a pension house business here before moving to Manila.
“Hurting and killing another (person) is not brotherhood. That is murder,” Marañon stressed. “The perpetrators should be caught by the police.”
Asked for his opinion on fraternities being legalized to allow government regulation, he said, “Ban them altogether!”
He said the only ones who gain from hazing activities are “the egos of the upperclassmen of these fraternities.”
Romeo Baldevarona, head of Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Negros Occidental, said hazing is “against the right to life.” He said the CHR “strongly condemns this activity.”
He said there is the Anti-Hazing Law but there is a problem with its implementation.
Over a radio interview yesterday, Iloilo 5th District Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said he will seek the review of the Anti-Hazing Law.
Tupas, chair of the House of Representatives committee on justice, said he will push for higher penalties for violation of the law./PN
