Public Humiliation in Student Organizations
An investigative report


Public humiliation is illegal, says the Anti-Hazing Law. But student organizations that do this ask how come this law, which defines this method of recruiting as hazing, does not provide penalties when an applicant is subjected to psychological suffering unless, he or she becomes insane or imbecile.


Republic Act No. 8049, “An act regulating hazing and other forms of initiation rites in fraternities, sororities, and organizations and providing penalties therefore,” otherwise known as the Anti-Hazing Law, defines hazing as “an initiation rite or practice as a prerequisite for admission into membership in a fraternity, sorority, or organization by placing a recruit, neophyte, or applicant in some embarrassing or humiliating situation such as forcing him to do menial, silly, foolish, and similar tasks or activities or otherwise subjecting him to physical or psychological suffering or injury (UP Diliman Student Guide, p.62).”


Section 4 says that “the school authorities including the faculty members who consent to the hazing or have actual knowledge thereof, but failed to take action to prevent the same for occurring shall be punished as accomplices for the acts of hazing committed by the perpetrators.”


Arguing that their application process is a tried-and-tested tradition that has helped build the character of their members and produce excellent public performances, two student organizations expressed disapproval of the College of Mass Communication (CMC) administration’s suggestion to completely change it.


On August 10, CMC college secretary Lourdes Portus asked UP Samahan ng mga Mag-aaral sa Komunikasyon (UP SAMASKOM) and UP Broadcasting Association (UP Broad Ass) to find alternative ways to recruit members, as it is not reflective of the College’s mission-vision to have an “egalitarian, participative, and progressive society through the development of media that is socially responsible, critical, vigilant, transformative, and independent.”


This meeting was a result of a prior faculty assembly on August 4, majority of which found the two organizations’ cursing, scolding, and ordering costumed applicants to buy something in the college canteen during their “fun weeks” degrading, said Portus.


“The college does not agree with this [public humiliation]. Ang sinasuggest ng college eh ibang methods, di ka maghuhumiliate ng tao, hindi ka magveverbal abuse. Kasi kung nagmumura ka, artificial lang ang pagdebelop ng character kasi you’re just pressured o takot ka lang,” she said.


Meanwhile, there are performing student organizations in UP that do not believe that public humiliation is necessary for them to succeed.


Jonald Salcedo, assistant property head of Kontemporaryong Gamaying Pilipino (KONTRAGAPI), the official music and dance ensemble of UP College of Arts and Letters (CAL), said that for a student to become a member, he or she just have to undergo 2 -3 months of training.


“We are not the kind of group that humiliates recruits in public. In KONTRAGAPI, as long as you know how to count from one to eight, that’s enough,”Salcedo said.


UP Theatre Council (UP TC) expressed the same view.


“If you do your work and get serious with what you’re doing, you would gain respect through that,” UP TC costume mistress Cristina Agila said.


UP Streetdance Club (UP SC) Competing Team member Mark Joseph Ubalde, meanwhile, said that although the Club is a performing organization, the members then did not put them through any humiliating situation when they were applicants.


“The Club does not believe in public humiliation. We did wear costumes but the members made sure we were not humiliated. In fact, I even enjoyed it,” Ubalde said.


Asked what is his reaction about humiliation-free performing student organizations, UP SAMASKOM president Marvin Tomandao said, “Wala akong pakialam.”


However, UP Broad Ass Membership Committee head Lara Magtalas pointed out that public humiliation was never the intention of their organization but rather to measure how an applicant could adapt in the world of mass communication, which has helped a lot of their alumni in the industry.


Magtalas said that scolding the applicants when they had not exerted much effort on producing costumes would train them to “work under pressure,” as what most companies say in job advertisements.


She revealed that some members do speak in outburst and curse, but she said those were never directed to the person himself. For example, she said, when they were not satisfied with the performance, members would say “tangina naman,” not “tangina mo.”


She also said that the reason they do this in public is for people to know what they are doing.


“So if you would notice that there is something wrong, you are free to tell us. You are free to guide us and give opinions,” Magtalas said.


Consequently, UP Broad Ass and the CMC admin have agreed that “it should not be totally eradicated but somehow it must be lessened.”


“We also believe that hindi lahat nadadaan sa mura at sa pagsigaw. What we’re really after is the pressure. You can do these [requirements] in a certain amount of time na madedeliver mo in an excellent way. Because who wants trabahong trash, di ba?” she said.


Although affirmed to UP Broad Ass’ reasons why such application process should exist, Tomandao sees this as a suppression of their freedom of expression, claiming that theirs are no different from Alpha Phi Omega’s Oblation Run nor the activists’ rallies.


During the meeting with the college secretary, Tomandao said Portus would file a complaint to the CMC admin to revoke their org recognition if UP SAMASKOM would continue tolerating this kind of initiation.


Knowing that this might happen, he explained to all of his members and even their alumni that they were no longer allowed to curse and scold applicants within the college premises.


Portus, however, said that the admin would not impose sanctions for they “treat students as adults.”


Published by the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs, the UP Student Guide includes the Anti-Hazing Law. But even the republic act, which is supposed to regulate initiation rites of organizations, is being questioned.


Magtalas said that the definition of hazing is vague and relative, for what is humiliating to one may not be that embarassing to another.


Tomandao, on the other hand, said the Anti-Hazing Law is “weird,” as it only penalizes if the applicant was physically injured, died, raped, or became insane or imbecile as a result of the initiation rites.


Juan Paolo Amistoso of UP College of Law Office of Legal Aid (OLA) said that the Anti-Hazing Law should be amended. If we were to put penal provisions for psychological incapacity after hazing, he said, we should clearly define the term so that at least, everyone would understand it.


“Because even psychologists themselves disagree whether a condition is a [psycholgical] disability or injury, the scope of the definition should be limited so that it would be clear whether an activity is under these penal provisions,” Amistoso said.


Unless R.A. 9049 is revised, said Tomandao, they would not think what they are doing is wrong.

Fighting Chance
An Interview with a UP President nominee “ Because if I’m given a chance to help the University, I will do it.”


So said former UP College of Mass Communication (CMC) dean and journalism professor Dr. Georgina Encanto when asked what made her decide to be in contention for the highest post in the University.


For 27 years of working in UP, Dr. Encanto always take a proactive approach when opportunities come to her. During her deanship from 1984 to 1990, she organized and obtained funding from external sources for the Graciano Lopez Jaena Journalism Workshop, an extension project aimed to raise the professional and ethical standards of community journalism, which ran beyond her term for 12 years.


Dr. Encanto also formed the UP-CMC Foundation to find means to financially support the College, frequently consulted students through student assemblies and the student-faculty relations committee, established mechanisms for democratic decision-making among the faculty and non-academic personnel, and made possible the publication of CMC’s Plaridel Journal’s predecessor, the Philippine Communication Journal. It was halfway in her term in 1988 that the then Institute of Mass Communication became a college.


Now, being nominated for the presidency of the University of the Philippines System, Dr. Encanto faces a new task - how to extricate the university from its present crisis if she ever gets the chance.


“In the last Asia Week survey in 200, we were number 48, behind the universities of Tokyo, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. In the 1960s, the Thais were studying in UPLB and yet now, we have fallen behind. I feel very strongly that we have a lot of very competent faculty and our students are the brightest and the best in our country, you know. So why is this happening? This is something we have to address together,” Dr. Encanto says.


Losing faculty to other universities and to private industry and the scarcity of modern facilities due to financial problems have had an inevitable effect on instruction and research, says Dr. Encanto. She believes that we should keep on demanding government subsidy and UP should be treated differently from other universities. However, she says the government is also in dire straits.


“So what do we do here? Why don’t we find ways to help ourselves?” she suggests.


One way, she says, is through the use of mass media.


“We can use the mass media to project the messages of the University… to make all those who need to understand what UP is doing and get support that we deserve. It’s not going to happen if we just sit here and just engage in research and teach.” Dr. Encanto thinks that the University has not been publicized enough in imaginative ways to reach its target audiences.


“I think we have not done enough about that. We could have a magazine highlighting research of the faculty, but in reader-friendly terms.” She adds that our messages would not be disseminated well if we use technical and abstract language.


Another solution according to her is through effective alumni relations.


“You can’t just go to the alumni and start asking them for money. First, you have to nurture this alumni spirit and to make them identify with the University. I think I could do that by being in touch with the alumni. Writing letters to them, for example, on a regular basis,” she says.


Aside from keeping the alumni regularly informed on what is going on in campus, she also sees that linking them with one another through e-mails and websites shall help less successful UP graduates.


“ Not all UP alumni are very successful. Maybe we can link the less successful with the more successful ones, so that they can also be helped. I think we have to build this up and then, the alumni would realize what the University is doing. I think it will come naturally to them to want to dig deep into their pockets and support the University.”


She also wants to reexamine the STFAP and make it more realistic.


“Can you imagine that the cost of UP education is P7 - 8,000? That has to be looked into,” she says.


Dr. Encanto also sees the need to deal with issues such as crime, demolition, cleanliness, and security in campus. “UP, aside from being a university, is also a part of a community, so those problems have to be addressed. A campus should be conducive to learning.”


Asked what is her stand on the two proposed charters, she says, “I think we have to look at them, see what their strong points are and maybe incorporate them into another proposed charter. For example, the [Senate Bill] 2587 has a provision that would allow us to remove faculty and staff salary from Salary Standardization Law and the other one [Tañada Bill] wants to widen participation. Because when I’m president, I would like to listen to all sectors, get their inputs, and maybe come up with better provisions.”


The idea that whoever becomes president will be the centennial president challenges Dr. Encanto.


“In 2008, when we mark our centennial, it will be a very opportune time to reaffirm our leadership and to muster support for the UP.”


A living laboratory, she says, is what she envisions UP to be.


“UP will be where we can test all the concepts and the research that we have generated, and number one - apply them to a problem.”


Dr. Encanto teaches History of the Asian Press, Introduction to Journalism, and Feature Writing. Asked if she would still continue teaching if she gets her chance, she says, “Maybe I’ll teach one subject at least. When you’re teaching, you have to stay young. It keeps you young because you know what they’re talking about, what they’re doing. I think that’s very challenging. Teaching is age-defying.”


But what if she does not get the chance to lead UP?


“I’d like to think that whoever who gets the job is the one who’d be good for the University. I will still teach here. I have a lot of books that I have in mind, so it’s not something that I sought and I can always go back to that,” she says.


“I feel I just have the responsibility to accept it because it is an opportunity that is there. If I don’t accept it, then I will not have this chance to serve my alma mater.”


“But of course, it’s something that I leave to God. If the job is for you, it will find you.”