The sub-committee that was tasked to consolidate all anti-hazing bills filed before the House of Representatives is studying the possibility of making local government units or LGUs liable for every incident of hazing that occur within their jurisdiction.
Valenzuela City Congressman Win Gatchalian, who leads the Technical Working Group or TWG under House Committee on Revision of Laws, said LGUs should take responsibility on the activities of community-based fraternities.
“It is within the power and responsibility of the local government to accredit and recognize other people’s organizations,” Gatchalian told the panel.
“However, it becomes optional whether to register a group or not, depending on the objectives of the local government, so we will study how we can incorporate the idea of letting them manage school-based organizations,“ he added.
Gatchalian, a member of House Committee on Local Government, issued the statement after members of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Education (DepEd), and Central Colleges of the Philippines (Cocopea) asked the sub-committee to recognize the limitation of schools in handling organizations outside their campuses.
Christian Albert, a representative from CHED, said the government will place a huge burden on schools that will be compelled to monitor the activities of organizations outside the academic setting.
“Kailangan talaga makipagtulungan ‘yung local government in managing these groups because the learning institutions can’t monitor the activities outside the campus, particularly on unsanctioned groups,” Albert argued.
DepED counsel Jemy Loot also told the panel to emphasize on the community-based organizations outside schools, saying that they are the ones who usually influences the students to conduct hazing and other violent activities.
“Mostly, it is the external factors that affect the youth and it is just so happened that students nila ‘yung na-haze so we should make one of the roles of educational institution to make a report on the LGU concerned to determine kung legal group ba ito or hindi,” Loot explained. (Tim Alcantara)
