Duterte signs amended law prohibiting hazing

President Duterte has signed into law the bill amending the AntiHazing Act which now prohibits hazing and carries stiffer penalties. The President signed Republic Act (RA) No. 11053, which prohibits hazing and regulates other forms of initiation rites of fraternities, sororities and other organizations. The law amends RA 8049, which merely regulates hazing and other initiation rites. Congress worked to give more fangs to the Anti-Hazing Act last year following the death of Horacio “Atio” Castillo III, a freshman law student of the University of Santo Tomas who died from injuries he sustained during initiation rites by the Aegis Juris Fraternity. The new law carries stiffer penalties, including reclusion perpetua and a fine of P3 million for those who actually planned or participated in the hazing of a person who ends up dead, raped, sodomized or with mutilations. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, sponsor of the bill in the Senate, said the law would help ensure that Castillo’s death was not in vain. “Atio Castillo sought to join a brotherhood in search for his purpose in life. [L]et his death serve the purpose of ensuring that the misery of hazing and the employment of appalling rituals will no longer be imposed in the name of brotherhood,” Lacson said.