{waiting watching wishing}

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

{the last straw}

disclaimer: just so it's clear, i'm condemning the act, not the actors (as i'm not too sure as to their identities anyway and even if i knew...). i'm also not anti-frat though this post may seem otherwise. there are just certain practices i feel i cannot stomach nor condone. it's just that, well, this is the last straw. and it's frustrating in so many levels. please bear with my meanness, incoherence, and not-so-latent anger. (and my grammatical/typographical errors as well. anger makes me incoherent and not-so-OC.

three local/UP issues closest to my heart, in no particular order:
1. New UP Charter (or rather the lack thereof. let's hope it will be passed this congress)
2. Codified Rules on the Student Regent Selection (particularly as regards a more proportional voting mechanism, inter alia.)
3. Fraternity-related Violence

by saying that the aforestated issues are close to my heart, i simply mean that for some reason or another i feel very strongly and passionately about these issues. The New UP Charter is self-explanatory. Our Charter as it is is obsolete, outdated, if not anachronistic. Act 1870 no longer suits the needs of our growing and changing University. The second, the CRSRS and reform in the SR selection process in general is more personal. As a political science major (and because i'm feeling mean - a rational human being), i strongly believe that the SOLE student representative in the Board of Regents, the highest policy and decision-making body in the entire UP System should be chosen in the most democratic and representative means possible. that is to say, the status quo of 2 votes for every autonomous unit and 1 for every component unit does not a democratic and representative voting mechanism make. but the first two are not what's on my mind at this particular point in time so before i digress and go on and on about them, let me move on to the third: fraternity-related violence.

of fraternity-related violence, i cannot say it hits close to home. none of my brothers nor my dad are members of any fraternity and while i have nothing against fraternities and people (i somehow can't get myself to call them men at this point, i'm sorry)who choose to join them. in fact i have a few good friends who are members of frats, i guess i just never understood why they are so enticing (well, i AM a girl for one. haha). but then, at the end of the day, it all boils down to preference. if people decide they want to join, far be it from my to impede their freedom to do so. what i just cannot and will not ever understand nor EVER condone is fraternity-related violence in whatever form, be in hazing, rumbles, and the like. it just escapes me how in the spirit of brotherhood and loyalty, people can beat each other up, sometimes at the expense of one's life and health.

i remember being a first year high school student. it was the time alex icasiano died due to hazing. i remember reading about it in newsbreak (yes, i've been a loyal follower since high school. hehe). i remember our debate trainer giving us tips during one of our matter-loading sessions to pass on to our friends/brothers studying in UP on how to avoid frats (bottomline: don't be at the wrong place at the wrong time). i remember naïvely thinking to myself that UP was some big, scary place (ironically, 9 years hence i love it to bits in spite of and despite everything). less than a year later, niño calinao got shot in AS. it was apparently a case of mistaken identity given that he was not a member of any fraternity. he was a victim of circumstance, of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. it cost him his life.

when i entered up in 2002 as the eager-beaver backpack-carrying freshie that i was, the only thing i was sure of was this: i had to steer clear of all frats no matter what. i spent a good part of my college life purposely steering clear of frats. it was quite easy as most of the time i'd rush past or altogether avoid their tambayans. also, my circle of friends was petty-much frat-free. of course later on, some frat members became my friends, i even consider some of them my friends for life. but despite my friendship with them, i would spend many a conversation ~~fighting~~ arguing with them about what i did not like about the frat system (such will take an entirely different and probably much longer article. haha). i even had more than my fair share of fights with friends who are members of frats because they dared go near my brother to recruit him. i distinctly remember threatening to blow the tambayan of a particular frat into smithereens once because of the aforementioned reason (my not-so-baby brother). understandably the frat member whom i threatened didn't take me seriously. those were the days...

my years as an undergrad was relatively uneventful in the sense that it seemed that what happened with icasiano served as a lesson for them all. sure there were rumbles left and right but nothing major. until my third year when a neophyte ended up in a coma in the pgh icu. thank goodness he recovered but i vividly remember the feeling of not even anger but outrage. they had been going around telling people that hazing was a thing of the past. apparently such was just lip service. i felt that what added insult to injury was that the minute the news exploded, the fraternity involved was all defensive and chose to keep mum. i mean REALLY. did they honestly expect us to believe that the neophyte somehow just tripped and fell and due to his klutziness ended up in the icu? i think not. i'm sorry, but up students are smarter than that. but as i said, he got better, thank goodness, and the issue just somehow died after that.

until around a year later when we got word that a neophyte, this time from uplb died due to, surprise surprise, hazing. a reminder that, oh, people are still stupid AND violent (stupid is bad enough. that compounded with violence is simply unforgiveable). especially as a member of the council, i had my own share of frat-related headaches. my undergrad home was Palma Hall aka AS, one of the most, if not THE MOST populated buildings on campus given that everyone irrespective of course or college had to take classes there at one point in time or another. at last count, around seven fraternities had their unofficial tambayans in that area. it was a constant source of worry for us as we would often hear of tension between and among the different frats. what would happen if a rumble did break out (in fact they sometimes did)? what if another niño calinao incident took place? thank goodness nothing of that sort happened. but the knowledge that it was possible was present. and very real.

then i moved on to law, which, apparently is considered as a "haven." notwithstanding what happened last year, i saw some truth to that description. as law students, we were (and are) oftentimes isolated from the goings-on in the rest of the campus (and sometimes the rest of the world for that matter). and for the first time in a long time, i was able to selfishly revel in blissful ignorance. but aparently such bliss couldn't last. yesterday morning i received a text message telling me yet another neophyte had died allegedly due to hazing early monday morning. at first i couldn't believe it and kept praying it was just a prank, albeit a horrible one, but after a few confirmatory text messages, i found out that it was indeed true. instead of the usual outrage, i was in a state of shock. i kept hoping that it was just a nightmake i would soon wake from, but no such luck. it's very real. chris mendez a graduating student from ncpag died yesterday morning. read about it here. so after a very very long and winded "intro," please bear with me as i rant...

HOW COULD THEY?!?! THEIR ACTIONS ARE CHARACTERIZED BY STUPIDITY TO THE NTH DEGREE. AND I'M BEING NICE! DIDN'T THEY LEARN FROM ALL THAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST? AND EVEN IF THERE WERE NO PRECEDENTS, COMMON SENSE, HUMANITY, CONSCIENCE AND INTELLIGENCE WOULD DICTATE THAT IT'S WRONG TO KILL, TO EVEN HURT SOMEONE!! WHAT MADE IT WORSE WAS THAT THEY LEFT HIM AFTER DROPPING HIM OFF IN THE HOSPITAL. AFTER PRACTICALLY KILLING HIM, THEY LEFT HIM TO DIE?!?! AND THEY CALL THEMSELVES HUMAN BEINGS? I THINK NOT. SHAME ON THEM!

i wish i could just leave them to fry in their own oil (or whatever other apt idiomatic expressions there are) but the fact of the matter is this, because of them, SOMEONE DIED. because of them, a mother lost her son. others lost a councilmate/friend/relative/etc. and it seems that up to this point in time, they've chose to keep quiet. i cannot for the life of me, no matter how i twist this around, come up with a valid justification, or any justification for that matter, for their actions.

apparently, i saw him last week. he was recently appointed as the interim NCPAG rep to the USC and was present when we invited the USC to volunteer in the UP Law Bar Operations. i don't even remember his face but i remember noticing him (if that was him) because he was seated behind most of the members. i didn't even get to talk with him. but that doesn't make what happened to him less real. it doesn't make him fungible as apparently his brods-to-be thought he was. to think these were people whom he trusted. apparently with his life. haaayyy... :(

the autopsy report was supposed to have come out today but so far i've heard no news. the admin hasn't even come out with a statement. maybe i'm hastily jumping into conclusions but putting together all pieces of the puzzle, that's the only logical conclusion i can come up with thus far. though part of me is still hoping to find out i'm wrong. but if i'm not and they go scot-free, i will have lost all faith in all things good and just, believe you me.

Labels: frat violence, local/up issues, rants

Posted by arianne at 3:13 PM