By Merlina Hernando Malipot

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Tuesday assured that it will have a more active role in monitoring suspected cases of hazing and other violence-related incidents involving students in higher education institutions (HEIs).

(MANILA BULLETIN) “We must stop this barbaric practice that destroys the lives of young Filipinos,” said CHED Chairman Prospero De Vera III who personally visited a suspected hazing victim currently confined at the Chinese General Hospital in Manila last Monday night. De Vera assured that the CHED was “monitoring” the case of Jonathan Concordia, a Criminology student of the Laguna State Polytechnic College (LSPU) who was hospitalized after sustaining multiple injuries. “I visited him last night to check his condition and how CHED can help,” De Vera told the Manila Bulletin. “He is still in bad shape given that he has been in the hospital for one week,” he said. Concordia, De Vera said, has “bleeding in his brain and the doctors are still analyzing the CT scans to monitor the bleeding.” The student, De Vera added, “can recognize his relatives that are watching over him but he is unable to converse with them probably because of the pain.” De Vera also met with LSPU President Mario Briones who “has been on top of the situation and is raising funds for the student.” Briones, De Vera said, assured the CHED that “there are no school officials connected with the hazing incident and that the alleged fraternity is not a recognized organization in the campus.” Zero tolerance for hazing Meanwhile, De Vera noted that the CHED will “have stronger monitoring” of suspected cases of hazing once the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the newly-amended anti-hazing law has been out. In an earlier interview, De Vera said that the IRR for the Republic Act No. 11053 or the amended Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 will be out “very soon” after completing the last public hearing. “The IRR is already finished,” said De Vera. Along with different government agencies, CHED led the crafting of the IRR for the amended anti-hazing law signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2018. The RA No. 11053 added “new teeth” to the Republic Act 8049 which was passed in 1995. “The definition of hazing has been expanded and there are stricter penalties – it is considered a crime to do it,” De Vera said. Since the definition of hazing was expanded, De Vera said that the coverage of persons who will be covered by penalties was expanded as well. “There are stricter penalties for those who do it, those who allow it to happen, for school authorities to happen – they all covered by that,” said. The amended anti-hazing law, De Vera said, is targeted towards “zero tolerance” for hazing. “The problem before is that the enforcement of the law was not very strict, many can go around it so we tightened and expanded it,” he said. In the amended law, De Vera said that HEIs and other school authorities will be required “to report if they are going to do any activity related to student organizations must be reported to the school and the school is reported to the school if something happens.” Since CHED crafted the IRR, De Vera said that Commission will have to implement “stronger monitoring.” Aside from monitoring, he noted that the CHED will also be “capacitating the universities to be able to enforce the law better” and to “help the schools prepare” for any eventuality.