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expelled, 5 suspended for hazing
Today
on the Net; April 18, 2001
By
JAIME ESPINA Correspondent
BACOLOD
CITY—A college student of the prestigious University
of Saint La Salle (USLS) here was expelled and five
others were suspended for a part of the incoming school
year after being found guilty of hazing applicants
training to be officers of the school’s Naval
Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC).
Another
student, the only female among the accused and who
had since transferred to another school, was declared
persona non grata. All the accused were members of
the Officer Corps of the 806th NCMT Unit.
The
students were also ordered dismissed from the officer
corps and barred from any elective or appointed position
in the school’s student government.
The
penalties were meted out by Brother Dante Amisola,
USLS dean of student affairs, in a decision dated
March 20 this year based on the findings of the school’s
college discipline board.
Another,
Joemel Bertolano, was not included in the summary
proceedings conducted by the discipline board because
he was not a USLS student at the time of the hazing
in September last year.
However,
Bacolod Councilor Joe Max Ortiz, who assisted the
10 complainants, said the parents of the maltreated
students were thinking of filing criminal charges
against their children’s tormentors.
Interestingly,
however, the discipline board headed by law professor
Ralph Sarmiento based its findings on the USLS's student
handbook after finding that Republic Act 8049, or
the Antihazing Law, defines hazing in general terms.
This was why, Sarmiento said in a radio interview,
the board carefully shied away from using the term
hazing in its deliberations.
Besides
meting out the penalties, Amisola also approved the
discipline board’s recommendations for the inclusion
of clear antihazing policies and sanctions in the
student handbook, the drawing up of strict guidelines
and the close monitoring of NROTC training procedures
and for the school’s Student Activities Coordinator
and Office of Student Discipline to conduct seminars
on the Antihazing Law in connection with USLS's traditional
initiation and welcoming rites for new students.
Hermilo
Tongson was meted out dismissal from the University
without option to reenroll after being found guilty
of inflicting or attempting to inflict injury upon
another member of the university.
Tongson,
said the complainants, twice ordered them to enter
separate rooms where, ordering them to pass one at
a time in front of a chair on which he stood, he struck
them on the nape, the first time with a training manual,
the second with a two-inch thick logbook.
In
the case of one trainee, Brian Joseph Castaņeda, Tongson
“jumped first before hitting him on the nape.
Amisola
noted that Tongson’s standing on a chair and,
in delivering the blow on Castaņeda, can only be logically
interpreted as an attempt to gain further leverage
and deliver the full effect of the blow.
The
dean of student affairs also stressed that, because
of the seriousness of this particular offense, he
twice talked to Tongson to allow him to clarify his
statements and, in the face of “overwhelming
testimonies, allow him to “convince us that
there was room for a reasonable doubt as to his guilt
or perhaps room or reason at least for us to exercise
executive clemency.
However,
he said, Tongson continued to deny the charges and
claimed that, as a senior officer, he had neither
discernible motives nor desire to have done the things
he was being accused of.
Students
John Mark Sadiasa, Jomar Manalo, John Paul Caņada
and Rolen Gutana were suspended equivalent to but
not more than the 20 percent maximum allowable of
the prescribed class days of the first semester of
the 2001 to 2002 school year, while Victorino Sales,
the only one of the accused who readily admitted involvement
in the hazing, was slapped a 15 percent suspension.
Aside
from the other sanctions, the five were also placed
under disciplinary probation for the rest of their
stay in USLS, violation of which would subject them
to immediate dismissal from the school.
Odessa
Lozada, who now studies in another school, was ordered
barred from entering the USLS campus unless for just
cause and only with the permission of the Dean of
Student Affairs.
They,
along with Tongson, were found guilty of gross immorality
or scandalous acts which cause dishonor to the university
for ordering the trainees to chew items, including
food wrappers, and passing these from mouth to mouth
in a ritual called pass the ball.
However,
Amisola differed with the discipline board's pre-mise
that the absence of actual physical harm resulting
from the despicable act should construe a mitigating
circumstance since the act itself may not preclude
harmful physical effects or injuries, but rather should
be seen in the light of its inherent wrongfulness.
Not
only was pass the ball debasing, Amisola said, he
noted that the discipline board's own admission that
the ritual was meaningless and humiliating only exacerbates
the sorry situation.
While
it is the fact that no one among the complainants
suffered illnesses, it is only by stroke of fortune
that it emerged so, he said.
However,
the discipline board decided to gloss over other acts
the penalized students were accused of such as striking
the trainees in the abdomen with a logbook and stepping
on the trainees’ abdomens while they were lying
on the floor, accepting the explanation of both the
accused and of assistant commandant Petty Officer
2 Exequiel Acosta Jr. that these were "military
caresses" that are part of military training.
Acosta,
in his testimony, said that, except for the military
caresses, all the other acts committed by the accused
were all unauthorized and not considered as part of
the training. He also claimed ignorance of what had
been going on.
The
discipline board, however, slammed Acosta for failing
to acquaint himself with the Antihazing Law, saying
that with closer supervision and competent training
officers, the immoralities, scandalous acts and infliction
of physical injuries or harm on trainees could have
been prevented.
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