SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
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REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
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First Regular Session 
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S E N A T E
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BILLS
Introduced by SENATOR GREGORIO B. HONASAN II
AN ACT
AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8049 ENTITLED “AN ACT REGULATING HAZING 
AND OTHER FORMS OF INITIATION RITES IN FRATERNITIES, SORORITIES, AND 
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND PROVIDING PENALTIES THEREFOR”, AND FOR 
OTHER PURPOSES
EXPLANATORY NOTE
Hazing, in whatever form, whether it is subtle or intended to harass or done to inflict physical 
hann, is demeaning and downright inhuman. While it clothes man’s baser instincts with noble 
justifications such as measuring a neophyte’s preparedness, courage and endurance, hazing has 
often resulted in broken limbs and even deaths. And yet it continues to be the norm among Greek 
letter fraternities and sororities where the mental and physical scars incurred in the process are 
likened to war wounds earned in the battlefield. Forbidden, the practice continues and sunnise 
with the added thrill that it is done underground where fraternal relationships are supposedly 
cemented by raw recruits going through hell and fire. Battered and bmised, survivors get their 
reward as they are wamily embraced as full-fledged members. And the cycle goes on as the new 
members who have hurdled hazing will soon administer the same painful process in a tradition 
that marks the transition from “barbarians” to the elite fold of Greek letter fraternities and 
sororities. The interplay of pain and ecstacy in the rite of passage gives the hazing tradition a 
seemingly mystic character and there is a sense of pride when members carry on with that tradition.
In any decent organization, everybody must go through the eye of the needle to gain full 
membership but certainly there are more human measures, exacting they may be, that can be 
enforced to test the mettle of raw recruits without subjecting them to mental abuse, harassment or 
physical violence. Commitment to service can be proven through the practice of volunteering to 
do proactive labor like building houses for the homeless, cleaning sewerage, dredging canals, 
tutoring street children or lower clansmen, making desks for schools that do not have funds to buy 
enough of them for schoolchildren. Physical force can be maximized for good measure such as 
wielding a shovel to dig a garden or mix cement rather than using a paddle to inflict pain on 
defenseless persons. Doing these strengthens bonds of brotherhood and builds solidarity with 
people in need, attributes that can have far-reaching import in the development of civic leaders and 
public servants. The opportunities for instilling discipline and developing genuine brotherhood 
devoid of mayhem are limitless if we are creative. There should be no room for uncalled-for 
violence in fraternities and sororities avowedly-driven by the lofty ideals of love and brotherhood.
Hazing is meant to break down the spirit in a lopsided playing field where young recruits or lower 
classmen are subjected to all sorts of mental and physical abuse to make them submissive. Tliey 
will get their vengeance in future actions when they shall have become the bullies that they once 
dreaded.
This bill seeks to strengthen the present law by imposing the maximum penalty when hazing or 
initiation rite is committed under the influence of illegal drugs or liquor and when there is a 
presence of non-resident or alumni fraternity members during hazing. It likewise penalizes as an 
accomplice any person who was at the scene of the crime and who failed to report such crime to