Frats revisited, with feeling
ALAWYER-friend emailed me: “This is the list of victims of hazing in UP, 1. Gonzalo Albert; 2. Ferdinand Tabtab; 3. Rolando Perez; 4. Rolando Abad; 5. Arbel Liwag; 6. Joselito Hernandez; 7. Dennis Venturina; 8. Mark Martin; 9. Alexander Icasiano; 10. Nino Calinao; 11. Don Reyes; 12. Cris Mendez; Hopefully San Beda College of Law frats will not exceed them.”
Well, we lost two in San Beda this semester. Previously, one in 1991, when the flavor of the day, week, year and decade was Lenny Villa, whose case is still pending in the Supreme Court (SC).
The case of Gonzalo Albert Fr. Delaney spoke on in our huge grandstand when I was in Rizal High in Pasig. Riveting, magnetic and powerful speaker; he and what he said, passionately, won’t ever be beyond easy recall.
We hope our “streak” in San Beda will end at three in breaking the Lord’s Thou Shalt Not Kill. I don’t know though that any frat exists with a population reduction program. No school can monitor 24/7, indeed not even parents. To spread the misfortune by prosecuting them is tragic. Tragedy happens in an uncertain, imperfect world. As Pres. Cory would say, when the Lord calls, you go. Reckless imprudence made me a widower. Not mine was vengeance but the family was divided. Only my daughter sided with me when the driver came to see me and pled for forgiveness. I forgave even when there was absolutely no Assumption of Risk, unlike in hazing.
Last Tuesday, as promised if I felt up to it - am no longer a morning person really - I would accompany our Fr. Rector Aloy Maranan in the Senate for a morning hearing on frats, in a committee headed by Sen. Gringo Honasan, who attended San Beda long ago for some years, before moving to Taiwan with his colonel-father. Fr. Ed Africa was with us and told me he and Gringo were classmates for a week, as Gringo was accelerated ( like Ninoy Aquino, in high school). Manong Johnny recalled that in his time, no touch. Sen. Tito Sotto would adopt Justice Sereno’s suggestion in Lenny Villa’s case on “intoxication and the presence of non-resident or alumni fraternity members during hazing as aggravating circumstances that would increase the applicable penalties.”
I did promise Father Aloy, that after he would have collapsed and fainted, I would walk over him and carry on. (I tell my students that in three places, the Bill of Rights is not recognized, a police stationhouse, the House and the Senate, but mirabile dictu!: the hearing the other day proved very cordial and constructive. The Senators showed awareness of their position as public servants inviting particles of popular sovereignty, exuding breeding.)
My own leaning is to propose to San Beda to recognize frats, but they must report their existence and membership, for monitoring, and hazing should be limited to community service activities, like tree-planting, home-building with Gawad Kalinga or Habitat for Humanity, resuscitating the Pasig and Banahaw of my youth (my Mommy was from Mauban, Quezon and my Daddy was from Pasig, Rizal. I have memories of kalyos, kakawates, katurays, kapoks, ruined in our concrete jungles. Oh for the raintrees or acacia trees on Taft Avenue and Azcarraga. How well I remember the riveting passionate lecture of chief Justice Roberto Concepcion on conservation and the environment, and how trees held water in their roots). A doctor must be present even say in the clinic while hazing may be going on in the gym or football field.
Last Tuesday Manong Johnny did have a polite but stern reminder of what it is to be a public servant, in the Reglos case, the People, not any private person is the offended party in any public crime, to be relayed by the NBI attendees to my friend, Sec. Leila de Lima, who is doing the right thing, but I am not sure she’s doing it in the right way at the right time and the right reason - my four R’s I pound on in class - in relation to her CJ aspiration. Indeed, what gives the appointed JBC the right to amend or ignore the presumption of innocence guaranteed by the Constitution, ratified by the sovereign people, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
I would prefer others though - not her - to ask the question. It is the easiest thing to charge anyone so only conviction by final, unappealable and executory judgment should count. It may take a decade to decide the cases filed against her and she and other “outsiders” may not get the same lightning-quick resolution of the SC say in the case of insider J. Tony Carpio. The SC protects, not unnaturally, its own against any barbarian at the gates.
I am on record as not being for either Lei or Tony for CJ at this time. I recommended J. Bobby Abad and Ronnie Zamora, both to be 70 in 2014. We need a cooling off period, in the national interest. Then in 2014, PNoy can pick from a new list, including Tony and Leila, and other worthies, and she may run for the Senate meantime. Bobby penned the acquittal of Hubert Webb after 15 years in jail and I have said from the beginning that I was convinced that he was thousands of miles away when the Vizconde Tragedy occurred. Ronnie called unknown and obscure me in 1971 when I had just returned home from the US and headed the San Beda Free Legal Aid Clinic assisting student demonstrators. Ronnie, with a good work ethic and I worked together in conference till dawn in 1989 on the agrarian reform law which included a stock option for farmers. Such option may not work; I was and am impressed with economies of scale. But, man is not only a rational animal, but an emotional one, and we responded to the high feelings of the moment. Let us hope that PNoy will implement the standing SC ruling on Luisita and let’s see what happens. Ronnie’s feet are not planted firmly in midair, not pro-Macoy, not pro-Ninoy or proPNoy, but pro-Pinoy.
Hamlet’s “law’s delay”? Our dysfunctional system has the 1991 Lenny case still pending in the SC, now on its third decade. My client, Zos Mendoza of Aquila Legis, continues to be anxious, as we are, in San Beda because of another seeming frat violation of the Lord’s command: Thou Salt Not Kill, victimizing my student, Marc, with his clear promise and potential, but senselessly cut down in the flower of his youth. But, the sins of sons should not be visited on their fathers. And more so, on mothers.