The University of Santo Tomas (UST) is under fire with the recent fatal hazing incident that happened in one of its students’.
There is now a lingering question if the liability is not
limited to the fraternity members, and Civil Law officials. Can the university
be held liable for the hazing incident. Man of the hour, UST Faculty of Civil Law Dean Atty. Nilo T.
Divina recently was a guest in ANC’s
Early edition show and was asked
questions that can shed light to the incident that has griped the nation these
past weeks.
The Anti Hazing Law, Republic Act no.8049 is now under
scrutiny, if there is a need to strengthen it in the aspect of punishing all
those personalities leading up to the hazing incident. *
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| University of Santo Tomas (photo credit to owner) |
"I don’t think UST is liable because the test is ‘did
you measure up to the standards of a good father of a family?’"
"We have a very strict policy against hazing—that policy is part of our manual, and annual orientations are conducted to all students. Organizations that apply for accreditation are required to undertake that they will engage in any form of hazing," Dean Divina said.
"The incident happened outside the university. Lastly, the fraternity is not recognized for this year...Even assuming that it is recognized, the fact is - it is required to undertake that it will not engage in hazing. Recognition doesn’t mean approval of any unlawful acts," he added.
The Aegis Jvris fraternity, which
Castillo was supposed to join, was not recognized by the school and the fatal
activity happened outside their premises, said UST Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina.
Dean Nilo Divina, is a member of the Aegis Jvris fraternity,
said he did not know of Castillo's death until it came out in the news.
He said their faculty secretary received a report regarding the death of a student on Sunday afternoon.
By evening, their only confirmed information was that the student's name was Castillo.
"We did check further, but unfortunately, the offices are closed. I asked the secretary to get the full name and the address so we can reach out to the parents, but those data were not available," he said. *
Divina said the school has put up an independent committee to investigate, as he noted that the fraternity was "required to inform school authorities if they will do hazing," but no such notice was submitted to UST.
"If there was hazing and no notice was given to the school authorities is a violation of the law," he said.
Report from cnnphilippines
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