The university has become a site of relentless brutality. It was supposed to be a rite of passage to “toughen” the weak. Yet, in a malevolent turn of events, neophyte Cris Mendez was neither strengthened nor empowered. Instead, news of his death was met with a mixture of disbelief, sorrow and a gnawing anger over the futility of the loss.
Clearly, within fraternities thrives a culture incongruous with the logic of justice. Yet, this brutality has virtually become an impregnable practice in the “brotherhood”–difficult to remove, due, in part, to the existing feudal conditions of Philippine society that foster such violence and to its deep-seated entrenchment in the university.
Juxtapose the unabated spate of fraternity violence with the national arena and the escalating human rights violations. Leaders of militant groups are systematically eliminated by state elements in broad daylight. Protesting farmers are shot for demanding their right to land. Journalists are murdered for exposing corruption. Fellow UP students are abducted for working in peasant communities.
Despite the national bloodshed, violence persists within the university. The fraternities’ dogged acts of brutality speak of their glaring lack of social awareness. By remaining aloof to the national conditions, fraternities fail to challenge the prevailing system and instead, facilitate its perpetuation.
Indeed, the spiraling violence can only spawn further violence. The tradition of brutality is first cultivated in initiation rites, where the neophytes’ consciousness is subsequently shaped. These hazing practices aim to amputate the neophytes from their previous connections, as though the fraternity is their sole source of affiliation. Meanwhile, the neophytes, disassociated as they are, willingly subject themselves to practices they would otherwise reject in normal circumstances. The members’ punishing show of authority further forces the neophytes into submission, thus reinforcing the fraternities’ strict, autocratic echelon. In the process, neophytes become “slaves” to their dominant “masters.”
Also integral to the brotherhoods’ collective identity is a warped concept of masculinity, which encompasses feudal characteristics like strength, power, dominance, aggressiveness and a twisted sense of bravery. Consequently, slaves are expected to withstand their masters’ abuse during initiation, even when the pain has become unbearable.
Through initiation, the spiral of violence is replicated. Those who survive the brotherhoods’ rite of passage take it upon themselves to display their newfound sense of self. The slaves become warlords, unafraid of challenging other competing fraternities. Often mistaken for empowerment, this arrogant display of power finds the flimsiest excuse to create the most vicious abuse: ambushes that target lone members of a rival fraternity and melees that result from mere eye contact. In performing these acts, the brothers hide their faces behind masks, as if to disavow responsibility for such iniquity.
For while fraternities are unremitting in their attacks, they falter at the bar of justice. Despite the prevalence of violence and the passing of the Anti-Hazing Law, many are still attracted to the promises of the brotherhood. In this country’s feudal system, the network of patronage and benefaction assured by the fraternities serve as guarantees for self-advancement: employment, resources, promotion, business and politics.
Thus, for all the brotherhoods’ assertions of collectivity, their concerns seldom extend beyond their narrow alliances. And, as the brothers graduate, they bring with them the imprints of the fraternity into the national arena. With their propensity for the unrepentant abuse of power, it is no longer rival fraternities who are in danger but society itself.
In this sense, fraternities function as a pathological excrescence which duplicates a decadent feudal system.
Years after the deaths of Dennis Venturina, Mark Roland Martin, Alex Icasiano, Niño Calinao and Marlon Villanueva, the culture of brutality has again claimed another victim. Lest fraternities develop a social conscience that transcends the confines of their narrow relations, the death of Cris Mendez will not be the last. ●
Published in print in the Collegian’s September 4, 2007 issue, with the headline “Spiral of Violence.”
In 2007, Cris Anthony Mendez, a graduating public administration student, was killed during an alleged hazing by the Sigma Rho fraternity. The Court of Appeals in 2016 affirmed the administrative proceeding of the UP Student Disciplinary Tribunal against 13 members of Sigma Rho.
