Criminal charges, prison for cadets in sexual hazing incident, senator urges
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has called on top officials of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) to ensure that the three cadets involved in the sexual hazing incident would face criminal charges and sent to prison for their lascivious acts.
The PNPA is now investigating allegations that the cadets forced two freshmen to perform a sexual act as punishment.
“Heads must roll at the PNPA for the despicable sexual hazing incident involving three PNPA cadets and two plebes. I am disgusted by how cruel and unthinking these disgraced cadets have acted,” Gatchalian said.
“We passed the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 (RA 11053) precisely to punish without mercy hazing perpetrators like them,” the senator stressed.
President Duterte, last July 2018, signed into law, the “AntiHazing Act of 2018,” which effectively amends RA 8049, the anti-hazing law that was passed 23 years ago in 1995.
The new anti-hazing law prohibits hazing and regulates other forms of initiation rites of fraternities, sororities and other organizations and likewise, prescribes higher fines and longer imprisonment for violators.
The signing of the law was in response to the death of University of Santo Tomas (UST) freshman law student Horacio Castillo III.
Castillo, a 22-year-old freshman, died of heart attack after sustaining massive injuries inflicted on him during the initiation rites of Aegis Juris outside the UST campus.
Under the law, person or persons who participate in the hazing shall suffer imprisonment for 20 years and one day to life imprisonment and a fine of P1-million if this results in the death, suicide, rape, sodomy or mutilation of the victim.
“The PNPA administration must ensure that these disgraced cadets are prosecuted under RA 11053 and thrown behind bars for a very long time,” said Gatchalian.
Gatchalian also said the PNPA administration must do more to dismantle the culture of hazing that seems well-entrenched in the academy despite the passage of the new anti-hazing law.