Fret over frats

PAREDES

I was stuck in a traffic jam recently that, according to the report on the car radio, was caused by a big motorcade of a fraternity.

The newscaster said that the frat members rode on motorcycles without helmets, intimidated some motorists into halting them, and took a U-turn where it was not allowed. The few traffic enforcers who were seen just stood there, doing nothing.

It was as if the fraternity owned the road or that they were above the law.

But this was not the only problem recently caused by fraternities. In Manila, a law student was killed in hazing rites conducted by a fraternity of fellow law students and alumni in a university. Hazing, which has caused so many deaths, has long been outlawed.

But it continues to be practiced secretly by fraternities, ironically even those based in some of the best law schools in the country.

Fraternity culture, in fact, is one of the traditions that continue to exist in many law schools in the country, particularly those in Manila.

In Cebu, particularly in the university where I am currently teaching, fraternities have practically ceased to exist after the school came up with strict regulations following the anti-hazing law. Or perhaps they continue to do so underground. But I have not heard of them.

One wonders why fraternities in law schools are more visible in Manila than in the provinces.

When they go to Manila to take the Bar examinations, graduates of provincial law schools often notice the special reception fraternities there would give to their own members who are also taking the exams. They are greeted with a band, cheered and handed out flowers or snacks.

On the other hand, examinees from the provinces get no such pampering. They just walk to the venue alone without pomp and circumstance.

But this is not the only privilege some law school frat members in the capital may be getting.

The issue has been raised long before about the possibility of exam leakage being channeled through frat members, particularly alumni occupying positions that allowed them easy access to the exams. Sometimes, this is leaked under the cover of “bar ops” or study sessions held exclusively for frat members.

Of course, as soon as the frat member becomes a lawyer, he or she joins their not so secret brotherhood in the legal community that has pledged, since initiation rites, to help each other in whatever problems.

Those who defend the tradition of hazing in fraternities say that shedding blood is important to symbolize that, by then, you have become “blood brothers,” committed to help and protect each other at all cost and in all conditions. Indeed, the weak will always find comfort in the strength of numbers.

So to join a fraternity is to be immediately part of this big family who have sworn to protect and promote each other even if they have not met before. And in a country where connections are more important than competence, where justice and social mobility are “expedited” by whom you know and not by what you know, fraternities become a short cut to success.

It is thus no surprise that until now, in spite of the many casualties of hazing that continue to recur, a lot of young people are lured to join fraternities.

In fact, sometimes, even parents who were themselves members of fraternities, who survived violent hazing during their initiation, would still urge their children to join. It is part of manhood, a rite of passage, they might say.

That false sense of brotherhood, where one is forced to favor the other simply because of common affiliation, negates the most fundamental principle of law: impartiality. It is thus a great contradiction that fraternities exist in law schools where students are supposed to be trained to be as fair and objective as they can be being advocates of the rule of law.

It is not difficult to connect the impact of this herd mentality, inculcated early among the youth through fraternities, in our legal system and in the whole political culture of the country.

It breeds politics based on patronage and a bureaucracy where civil servants are recruited not through meritocracy but by sheer personal connections.

The cult of men and women whose absurd loyalty to Greek symbols seem to be stronger than their pledge to God and the Constitution is just about ready to cover up the mess that their brod or sis may have done. So it’s no wonder how a politician will risk political career and even his own life to defend or protect a fellow frat member, who may be accused of committing a crime.

Fresh from hazing, a young novice would also readily risk his own life fighting for his brothers in a frat war.

Such is the strength of this blood kinship. To shed blood literally is the true test. Ultimately, you are called upon by the herd to make the ultimate sacrifice.