Another one

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

One would have thought that the outcry and revulsion aroused by the senseless killing of law student Martin Reglos last year by his would-be brothers in a university fraternity was shocking enough to make all other law students abhor membership in such heartless groups and their activities.

But, alas, apparently not, because late yesterday, news broke out about another loss of life believed caused, again, by the monstrous ritual called an initiation, or hazing. This time the victim was another law student, Marc Andrei Marcos, of San Beda College.

The circumstances in this, as well as in all those other fraternity killings in the past, seem true to form. A young man, his body bruised and broken, is rushed to a hospital and then abandoned by others, believed to be members of the group that had tortured and punished him to the point that his body could take no more.

At the medical facility, where young Marc Andrei Marcos was rushed, it was noted that he had no more vital signs, which means he was virtually dead already. Actual death came several hours later, but, obviously the young man never had a chance. The beatings and the physical abuse dealt to him had been so intense that they could no longer be borne by a mere human being.

Was it only last year that the country was also horrified by the fate of Reglos, a young man from a simple family, whose only wish was to “belong” to the fraternity that he never thought included his executioners?

That case should have been a strong reminder to both the schools and the legal community that this dastardly tradition of initiations or hazing has to be stopped. Have they not realized that tolerating the breeding of sadists and criminals through those fraternities make it seem as if this is part of the training and education of future lawyers?

There is supposed to be a law against such organizations and their activities. Is it, like so many others passed by our Congress, also toothless?*