Fraternity Violence

Fraternities comprise only a fraction of the total number of student organizations. Yet
the violence that has time and again erupted from their folds has tainted the reputation
of the country's premier university. Before the 1990s, deaths resulting from fraternity
hazing and rumbles were few and far between. Recently, these have alarmingly
become more frequent. In 1992, fraternity hazing under Scintilla Juris resulted in the
death of Joselito Hernandez, a student of UP Baguio.Two years later, a rumble between
Scintilla Juris and Sigma Rho snuffed the life of Dennis Venturina, a senior Public
Administration student and chair of the CPA council.
In 1995, Mark Roland Martin died during initiation conducted by the Epsilon Chi.
YEAR NAME FRATERNITY
1954
Albert, Gonzalo
Mariano
Upsilon Sigma Phi
1967 Tabtab, Ferdinand Alpha Phi Omega
1984 Liwag, Arbel Beta Sigma
1992 Hernandez, Joselito Scintilla Juris
1995
Martin, Mark
Roland
Epsilon Chi
1998
Icasiano, Alexaner
Miguel
Alpha Phi Beta
Table 1. Fraternity Details due to hazing
In 1998, hazing once again claimed another victim, Alexander Miguel Icasiano of Alpha
Phi Beta.
It was only last year when Mass Comm student Nio Calinao died in the hands of hired
killers. He was not a member of any fraternity. But on the day of the fatal slaying, he
happened to be seated near a fraternity tambayan. Students believe that it was a case
of mistaken identity. The case remains unsolved to this day.This year, on the very night
a concert was being held in memory of Nio Calinao, fraternity violence claimed the life
of another young student, Den Daniel Reyes of Alpha Phi Beta. This same February 10
incident also resulted in the injury of three Sigma Rhoans.
YEAR NAME FRATERNITY
1969 Perez, Rolando Upsilon Sigma Phi
1977 Abad, Rolando Alpha Phi Omega
1994 Venturina, Dennis Sigma Rho
2000 Reyes, Den Daniel Alpha Phi Beta
Table 2. Fraternity Deaths due to Rumbles
Members of the UP community are disturbed by the increasing number of deaths
caused by either fraternity initiation rites or fraternity wars. The death of Den Daniel
Reyes came at a time when the UP community had come together to organize a protest
rally against the UP budget cut. In a dialogue he conducted with students and faculty
last February 17, President Francisco Nemenzo expressed his sentiments against the
fraternities involved:
"By their action, by undermining our efforts at this critical moment, I think these two
fraternities have alienated themselves from the UP community. I dont think we should
consider them still part of the UP community. I think we should ostracize their
members. I think they do not belong to UP Diliman. I think they belong to Muntinlupa."
Based on a report made by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs,
fraternities comprise only 5% of the 239 accredited university-based student
organizations. For schoolyear 1999-2000, 12 university based and 5 college-based
fraternities have been given recognition: Alpha Phi Beta, Alpha Phi Omega, Alpha
Sigma, Artists Circle, Beta Epsilon, Beta Sigma, Epsilon Chi, Gamma Sigma Pi,
Latagaw Brotherhood, Pan Xenia, Sigma Epsilon, Sigma Kappa Pi, Sigma Rho, Tau
Alpha, Tau Rho Xi and Upsilon Sigma Phi. Recognition by the university entitles these
fraternities to conduct projects and activities, use university resources and tambayans.
The report also lists fraternity confrontations from January 1991 to February 2000:
Pairs of Fraternities 1991-94 *1995-97 1997-98 1998-99
1999-
2000
Sigma Rho vs Upsilon Sigma
Phi
19 2 2 0 0
Tau Gamma Phi vs
Alpha Phi Omega
8 1 0 0 0
Alpha Phi Beta vs Scintilla Juris 6 0 1 0 0
Sigma Rho vs Alpha Phi Beta 5 0 1 0 1
Alpha Phi Beta vs Alpha Sigma 4 1 1 0 0
Beta Epsilon vs Tau Alpha 4 0 2 0 1
Sigma Rho vs Beta Sigma 4 0 0 0 0
Brotherhood of Filipinos vs
Latagaw Brotherhood
3 0 0 0 0
Pi Sigma vs Alpha Sigma 3 0 1 0 0
Sigma Rho vs Scintilla Juris 3 0 0 1 0
Scintilla Juris vs Pi Sigma 2 0 0 0 0
Scintilla Juris vs Vanguard
Fraternity
2 0 0 0 0
Tau Gamma Phi vs Sigma
Kappa Pi
2 0 0 0 0
Tau Gamma Phi vs Epsilon Chi 2 0 0 0 0
Alpha Phi Beta vs
Tau Gamma Phi
1 0 0 0 0
Alpha Phi Omega vs Upsilon
Sigma Phi
1 0 0 0 0
Alpha Phi Omega vs Beta
Sigma
1 0 0 0 0
Beta Epsilon vs EMC2 1 0 0 0 0
Beta Sigma vs Scintilla Juris 1 0 0 0 0
Epsilon Chi vs Tau Alpha 1 0 0 0 0
Scintilla Juris vs
Alpha Phi Omega
1 0 0 0 0
Sigma Rho vs Tau Gamma Phi 1 0 0 0 0
Tau Gamma Phi vs Tau Alpha 1 0 0 0 0
Upsilon Sigma Phi vs Vanguard
Fraternity
1 0 0 0 0
Brotherhood of Filipinos vs Pi
Sigma
0 1 0 0 0
Alpha Sigma vs Sigma Kappa
Pi
0 0 1 0 0
Beta Sigma vs Alpha Sigma 0 0 1 0 0
Pi Sigma vs Tau Gamma Phi 0 0 1 0 0
EMC2 vs Fishball Boys 0 0 0 1 0
Upsilon Sigma Phi vs Scintilla
Juris
0 0 0 1 0
Gamma Sigma Pi vs Scintilla
Juris
0 0 0 1 0
Sigma Rho vs Pi Sigma 0 0 0 0 1
Alpha Phi Omega vs Demolay 0 0 0 0 1
Beta Sigma vs Pi Sigma 0 0 0 0 1
Unidentified protagonists 0 17 0 0 0

TOTAL 78 22 11 4 5
TABLE 3. Fraternity Confrontation
Table 3 of the OVCSA report shows the frequency of fraternity rumbles covering the
period January 1991 to February 2000. The data covering the period 1991-1994 comes
from the study of Dr. Ricardo Zarco and Dr. Donald Shoemaker. The OVCSA also
noted that although there were only 5 rumbles reported during the period 1995 to 1996,
there were actually 22 fraternity-related cases filed at the SDT.
Table 3 indicates an apparent decline in the number of violent incidents between
warring fraternities. But what the table does not show is that two of the few incidents
recorded from 1994 to February 2000 resulted in deaths.
University-Fraternity Efforts
The University has not been lacking in efforts to curb fraternity-related violence. The
OVCSA report revealed that as early as the 1950s, an Interfraternity Council was
already established in the University. In 1979, the UP-Interfrat Council (UP-IFC) was
formally organized under then Dean of Students, Oscar L. Evangelista.
In 1994, an Inter-Fraternity/Sorority Alumni Council (IFSAC) was established to foster
better relations among fraternities and sororities.
In November 1996, the UP Diliman VCSA became more active in initiating in
undertaking major initiatives to help find solutions to the nagging problem of campus
inter-fraternity violence. Some of these initiatives include:
Preparation of a data-base on fraternity-related cases;
Inter-fraternity meetings to promote camaraderie among members of different
fraternities;
Inter-fraternity activities such as the signing of a peace accord, involvement in
outreach programs of Pahinungod; establishment of the INTERFRAT
NETWORK; creation of the UP fraternity community which resulted in the
launching of the UP frat.com last June 18, 1999;
Consultation with the UP Barkada, a group of fraternity alumni;
Mediation in times of inter-fraternity conflicts.
In the February 17 dialogue, President Nemenzo stressed that helping solve fraternity
violence is the responsibility of all members of the U.P. community. As he said, "We
have to face these rascals as a community dont leave this only to the administrators
or to the police to solve this problem and to prevent its recurrence." (TG Maceda and
Levi Lusterio