Why hazing occurs

"Brotherhood, you say?"

Every now and then, we hear and read about instances of hazing in colleges, universities and other institutions. Young men aspiring to be lawyers, soldiers, cops and others get killed.

This brings forth the question: Why do these things continue to happen? 

In the military and police academies, why do upperclassmen resort to hazing? Is this even real brotherhood?

Now we hear once again that a cadet at the Philippine Military Academy has died at the hands of his upperclassmen. Why do they continue to do it, knowing that hazing is classified as a heinous crime?

In the early 1950s, while I was taking up law subjects as a Bachelor of Arts student at Ateneo de Manila, we organized Aquila Legis (Law of the Eagle) at the Ateneo College of Law. Louie Javellana, who would become an associate justice of the Supreme Court, was our president. The only thing required of us lowerclassmen was to kneel in front of our girlfriends and give them flowers.

Sadly, that fraternity developed into something else.

In the case of student fraternities in recent years, initiation rites end up violently. That is supposed to give the members a sense of belonging. I do not see the logic behind it. What a barbaric act!

Psychologically speaking, hazing is resorted to be criminal minds to show their dominance over others.

But camaraderie comes naturally to people who have been friends for a long time. It is not achieved through violence and control.

* * *

Two ranking officials of the Philippine Military Academy resigned following the death of a cadet.

Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista, PMS superintendent, and Brig. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, commandant, both stepped down,

Evangelista said that since he was the one responsible as superintendent, it was a good time to resign to pave the way for further investigation if needed.

Bacarro said he quit because of the principle of command responsibility.

But the resignations bring to light the question: Were they aware of what was going on under their watch?

It would seem not.

At any rate, we need a full investigation still. Involved here are young men who had lofty dreams of being high-ranking officials of the military. Can you imagine what they will do in the event they indeed become military officers?

* * *

We journalists are often accused of being corrupt, I think this is unfair to those who have made journalism their life work, and who are honest and upright.

Of course there are bad apples among our ranks. I would say they are the exception rather than the rule.

I am proud to say that in my almost 70 years as a journalist, I have never been accused of being corrupt.

There is what is known as attack-and-defend journalism, which is self-explanatory. There is also envelopmental journalism, where PR people hand out cash or other benefits to reporters and columnists.

The easiest to bribe are camera people for TV and photographers of newspapers. The normal rate these days, I hear, is P5,000.

To me, the most insidious manner of corruption of the press is when there is a change in administration and the incoming president appoints an editor or a columnist to a government-owned and -controlled corporation. There are perks that come with this appointment. So how can the editor or columnist now be free to say anything against the appointing authority?

Lest I am misunderstood, I am not saying that anybody in media appointed by a president is corrupt.

Corruption is a result of the underpayment of media people, despite the risks and other inconveniences they face while on the job.

I urge owners and managers of media to get together and consider journalism as a risky profession. Journalists should have commensurate pay!

* * *

The problem of government people is that once they sit in their air-conditioned offices, they lose their capacity to think out of the box.

Take the case of Edsa traffic, which has resulted in daily nightmares for commuters and motorists alike.

We are fortunate that there are visionary businessmen like Ramon Ang, San Miguel president and COO. Ang has submitted an unsolicited proposal to Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to build a 10-lane expressway over Edsa. I think this is practical and doable.