the brotherhood of boys

i entered UP in 1994.  i graduated in 1998.  i went back for law school in 1999, and finally left my beloved diliman campus in 2005.  in almost a decade, i have experienced, seen, felt and heard of a myriad of unfortunate events on fraternity violence.  i cannot remember all of them, given how many there are, but i remember those which left a mark.

these snippets that follow are purely personal and brutally real.  a number of incidents of frat-related violence happen at the diliman campus every year, and every year it seems that these BOYS will never, ever learn.

1994.  freshman year, 2nd sem.  dennis venturina is killed.  i did not know dennis, but i knew two of those charged for his death.  one is still in bilibid, who i vow to myself i will visit sometime this year, and is awaiting the outcome of their appeal.  the other one, who i became good friends with in law school, was acquitted and is now a lawyer.

1995.  freshman year, 2nd sem.  i was seated by the window, daydreaming in the middle of comm2 class.  suddenly i hear shouts, and gunshots.  another fraternity rumble.  no one gets hurt or killed, but i become very disturbed seeing a friend holding a pistol while running away from a policeman.

1995.  sophomore year, 1st sem.  mark roland martin dies while undergoing initiation rites.  i get a call at dawn from some guy i didn't know that i had to rush to los banos to help two of my friends.  gail & i went to los banos, straight to the municipal jail.  i had to process the leave of absence of j, who couldn't show his face in UP, while r's mom took care of her son's leave.  j moves to cebu.  r is now a very successful engineer.  they are both active with volunteer work.

1996.  sophomore year, 2nd sem.  i see the name of a high school schoolmate on the pages of the collegian.  the UP diliman police gave his name as a suspect in a rumble that had happened.  i don't know if that guy ever graduated.

1997.  junior year, 2nd sem.  there is shouting and running in the corridors of BA, and suddenly we hear what sounds like a gunshot.  i tell my barkada that i have to go check, since i was the only one who had friends in almost all the frats.  i go out and see two groups of boys running away from each other and dashing into separate waiting cars.  the UP diliman police, who apparently had released the warning shot, looked on and let them go.

1998.  first job.  alex icasiano dies of hazing.  the name of my college roommate's best friend, a sophomore at law school, is 2nd on the list of suspects.  he is found guilty for a lighter  offense.  he applies for parole, goes back to law school, and becomes a good friend and inuman buddy.  he is now a lawyer.

2000.  freshman law, 2nd sem.  i arrive at UP for class and find the law center area swarming with police.  i see yellow ticker tape, and i know there has been another death, most probably from a rumble.  i walk slowly to malcolm, and i see smears and drops of blood on the walkway and steps between the law center and the library.  i get to class, and some of the boys are conspicuously absent.  later we get confirmation that it was indeed a rumble, and den reyes had died.

2004.  september, last day of bar exams.  my friend who was acquitted in the 1994 case just finished taking the bar.  he is one of the first of the UP grads to go out of dlsu.  i watch him like a hawk, because i know that ever since the acquittal, the rival frat had the hots on (and for) him.  suddenly, UP boys with broken bottles were rushing into my friend's frat's tent and destroying everything in sight.  they beat to a pulp another boy who couldn't get away fast enough.  they see my friend and try to go after him.  my friend didn't want to hurt the UP crowd, so he walked away from the group.  suddenly, one of the more-infamous hot-headed alumnus of the rival frat approaches my friend and points a gun on him from 3 feet away.  malen and i rush to cover our friend, not thinking of the danger to our own lives.  after what seemed like eternity, "manila's finest" police arrive and arrest the gun-toting boy and his boy-cohorts.

now, the life of cris mendez has been cut short after he succumbed to injuries from hazing almost two weeks ago.  a number of the suspects are currently in law school, and i heard that most of them have already filed their leaves of absence from the college.  the case is undergoing investigation.

i will not venture into an analysis behind-my-lines and beyond these senseless incidents and killings.  i have seen my friends grow from the boys that they were to the men that they are now.  my brothers are safe.  not one of them has joined a frat, despite the numerous invitations they get every semester.  from my viewpoint, that's as personal as i can go. 

the rebel in me will always scream for these frats to stop and just be normal orgs, for crying out loud.  instead of mauling and killing each other, they can do more productive things for the community and the nation. 

how to get to them to realize that is beyond me.  i have tried, and it was useless talk.