Violence in Brotherhood

Fraternity, from the root word frater in the Latin word meaning brother, brotherhood, and every time I heard about this topic, I usually heard of the word brotherhood, because according to some people, this is what they are practicing inside the fraternity, but upon hearing the news about new members or neophytes in a particular fraternities, who died because of a rites called initiation, I somehow asked myself, is this what they called brotherhood?
We have an existing law here in the Philippines, the Republic Act No. 8049, or the Anti-hazing law, intended to fraternities, sororities and organizations that are practicing any forms of initiation rites. Hazing, a term used to describe various ritual and other activities that involves harassment, abuse or humiliation. According to the law, organizations such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Philippine Military Academy and the cadet corps of the Citizen Military Training are included, and could be punished if any members from the said organization, or even the organization itself, practiced such initiation rites. As what I have understood on the law, it doesn’t necessarily prohibits the existence of fraternities and sororities in any place, because there are fraternities, which I believed, who doesn’t practice any physical, mental, emotional and verbal abuse to their members. The law focused on the initiation rites conducted by various fraternities and organizations, it completely prohibit any forms of harassment, especially physical abuse, that sometimes caused death to young new members of a particular fraternity. The maximum sentence is reclusion perpetua, or life imprisonment, if the act resulted to death.
We usually heard from the news about the said issue, and mostly because a frat member dies because of hazing, and there are numbers of cases before, and just recently, a college student again, from a university in Makati, died because of hazing, and luckily, the suspects were caught and about to be punished.
I have some friends who are members of particular fraternities, and there are times where they are telling stories about the experiences they’ve gone through just to be in, and mostly are evidence that it shouldn’t be called brotherhood, because a lot of physical and sometimes mental tortures are going on inside a fraternities. Some of them are humiliated in front of many people; some are being slapped in their faces, running outdoors in their under wears, and the most painful I believe, was being hit by a wooden weapon they called the paddle, not the paddle used by fishermen, but almost look like what we used in washing clothes. How could I say it’s the most painful, well, I’ve never experienced being hit by a paddle, but I’ve seen the bruises made by paddles, on the upper legs of the frat members, it’s like seeing a “double-dead” meat. This is part of what they called the initiation rites, it’s like a tradition on their part in welcoming new members, and measuring how tough the neophytes are, but I couldn’t understand why they have to hurt their so-called brothers, it doesn’t show brotherhood, it shows violence.
During my freshmen days in college, I was able to experience being invited by two well-known fraternities, I ask myself at first why did they chose me, and I just thought that it’s because of my built. I was very hesitant at first to join, because my father told me before or warned me before about joining fraternities, he said that I should avoid joining any frats and just focus on my studies, because he believed that it could only get me into trouble, and could even put my life into danger. Honestly, I thought of joining one, because I’m interested in knowing what it feels like to be a frat members, because it seems that most students are avoiding them and some are scared of them, because mostly believes that only those who are brave are the only ones who are qualified to join in a particular fraternity. I’ve heard before that fraternity is all about brotherhood, they have your back whenever you need them, they will back you up to any troubles your into, and they even could be at help with any financial matters. These reasons somehow made me think of joining, but, the fact that I would experience the fierce of the old members by hurting me physically, and humiliating me in front of many people, stops me, because I’m afraid of the pains that I could get from joining them. At the end, even if I was almost got into trouble because of their invitation, I have decided that joining any fraternity is a no for me, I have my friends that would back me up and I could run to whenever I need them, and besides, I could gain friends even without measuring how strong and brave I am by undergoing any initiation rites. In addition, loyalty is one best virtue that fraternities embodied, being loyal to your members, to the masters and to the organization itself, which one thing I admire to them, but still, hurting should not be practice inside the fraternity.
I am not into a position to question the legalities of every fraternity, though I still couldn’t figure out, why they have to hurt their members, just to test their strength and be an official frat member. I couldn’t see the brotherhood that they are talking about, because I believe that no one would want to hurt their brother. I’m happy with the existing law about hazing, because it somehow helps in stopping and prohibiting some fraternities in practicing the deadly initiation rites, though the implementation of the law still wasn’t enough, but it somehow helped. Brotherhood is about a bond you would want to establish within your group, it shouldn’t be incorporated with any form of abuse and violence; otherwise, it should not be called brotherhood at all.

“Lapses or Careless?”

Police officers are responsible in maintaining peace and orderliness in a certain nation, the society are expecting that they are the ones who will provide protections, securities and any other tasks given by the state, as long as it is not against the rule of law. Recently, the credibility of our Philippine police once again being questioned, because an incident took place where foreign people were abducted by an ex-police officer and eventually were murdered, that causes our country in the center stage in the whole world. The Philippine National Police had just shown another bad performance in handling a hostage situation, particularly in crisis management, “low-tech” equipments, and poor-decision making.
In the news, we usually heard of the word crisis management, especially when there is a complicated and dangerous situation happening. In the recent hostage drama happened in Quirino Grandstand, I strongly agree that the Philippine National Police have not handled the situation very effectively, because the incident end up in a more tragic way, and the poor handling of the police in the vicinity somehow affected the outcome of the hostage drama, where 8 Hongkong nationals were killed. I do not have any background when it comes to handling dangerous situations, or participate in any delicate matters, but I clearly saw the lapses made by our policemen. First point, the handling of the media people, I know that it is their job to cover everything, and bring the latest reports to the watching and hearing public, but the police should have given them their respective spots, where they should stay and record the blow-by-blow situations. As I have seen on the television, some reporters are what, only few feet away from the bus where the hostage drama is happening. I do not say that the media should be prohibited in the area, but, they just have to restricted, and give limitations to their coverage to avoid making the situation worst. Second point, the number of bystanders is large, large enough to somehow interrupt the operation of the police. I believe that the police are responsible in clearing the crime area, and make it sure that those who have something to do only, with the situation are those who are permitted to stay within the area. A bystander was hit by a stray bullet during the gun fires of the hostage taker, and that is the reason why they should not be at that place at that time. I think, the police should not necessary be a master in handling such crisis, they just have to be effective.
In every battle, a soldier, of course, need to be well-prepared, not just physically and mentally, but also, loaded and have complete necessary equipments. Guns of course is necessary, especially when the situation is very delicate and dangerous, but it does not mean that a police should use that gun for killing a suspect, remember, they should not abide the rights of any human, innocent or brigand. I was confused to see the policemen who assaulted the hostage taker, at first I thought they are just ordinary policemen, but I was wrong, they are members of Special Weapons and Tactics, or simply known as SWAT. SWAT are trained for solving dangerous and more complicated situations, they are usually operates during delicate cases such as kidnapping, robberies, hostage and many more. I was surprised and quite annoyed when I saw these SWAT policemen, clustered around the bus, assaulting with incomplete equipments. Some wears an assault vest or the bullet-proof vest on their body, while some are in plain uniforms, some wears a ballistics helmet, and there are some who wears a police cap, that whenever a bullet fired on their head, it would just take a tense of a second before they die. I saw a video that shows an assault by SWAT team from a European country, and it amazed me seeing them working and moving quickly. I asked myself, what if our SWAT police are like these guys, things would have been different, and result might not ended up in a tragic way. Philippine SWAT uses sledge hammers, good thing, but the windows are made up of fiber glass, and it is not easy to break it, they attempted many times, and the hammer slips of their hands at least couple of times, because they did not used any gloves. They used police automobile to climb the bus instead of using ladders or ramps, they used ropes instead of chains. The lack of equipments might not be entirely the fault of SWAT, because the budget allotted for them is not enough, but, I believe, they should maximize the resources, they should make use of whatever they have, it is not on the equipments, it is on their dedication.
One reason I belive, which ignited the hostage-taker is when his relatives was being hold by the policemen, and was brought to jail. It is not a good move to the part of the authority, it does not help anything, and it worsens the situation. It is not a good decision; they should have done that after the incident. Now, some authorities are pointing fingers, on who truly gave the order of arresting the relative of the hostage-taker, but it would not make anything back, the damage has been done, but it would have a different result if they did not do it.
It was indeed an unacceptable fact, that our policemen have done such lapses, it would just make me think, make everyone thinks that we cannot depend and rely on them, because they could not get their job done. It leaves a question on my mind, are the Philippine police smart enough, not to gamble their lives for others, or they are just afraid to die just to save and defend their citizens? I remember a line in our national anthem, “ ang mamatay ng dahil sayo.” A policeman should be brave, brave enough to die for their sworn obligation to their country.