President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. (File photo)
MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Wednesday vowed to deliver justice for Matthew Salilig, the 24-year-old chemical engineering student from Adamson University who allegedly died of hazing.
Marcos gave the assurance, as he sympathized with Salilig’s family.
“I extend my sympathies to John Matthew Salilig's family during this extremely difficult time and assure them that justice will be served,” he said in a Facebook post.
Marcos lamented that hazing rites continue in pursuit of brotherhood.
He said hazing is never an option, as it only incites violence.
“John was a child, a brother, a friend, a classmate and a son of this nation, with a bright future ahead of him. It is not through violence that we can measure the strength of our brotherhood,” Marcos said.
“There should be no room for violence in our student organizations which our children consider family, and in our schools which they consider their second home,” he added.
Salilig was recently found dead in the city of Imus in Cavite province.
Salilig, who had been reported missing since Feb. 18, was found buried and decomposing at a pit in Imus on Tuesday.
According to initial police investigation, Salilig attended the initiation rites of the Tau Gamma Phi fraternity in Laguna province before he went missing.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla already directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a parallel investigation into Salilig’s death allegedly due to hazing.
Republic Act (RA) 11053 or the Anti-Hazing Law passed in 1995 regulates initiation rites and prohibits physical harm and violence against applicants.
The law mandates that no hazing or initiation rites shall be allowed without prior written notice to the school authorities or head of organization a week before the event where at least two representatives of the school or organization must be present.
RA 11053 states that “if the person subjected to hazing or other forms of initiation rites suffers any physical injury or dies as a result thereof, the officers and members of the fraternity, sorority or organization who actually participated in the infliction of physical harm shall be liable as principals.”
Based on the law, life imprisonment will be imposed on individuals involved, if initiation rites result in death, rape, sodomy, or mutilation. (PNA)
