A rights group condemned the brutal hazing of trainees in Basilan province, saying the rites valorize and instil a violent mindset and culture among the police.
Karapatan said the hazing of recruits by the police further exposes the notorious and vicious character of government’s law enforcement agencies.
“[It] disregards basic rights and human dignity,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay told Kodao.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) announced the relief of the entire Police Regional Office Bangsamoro Administrative Region Mobile Force Battalion 14B (PRO BAR RMFB) as videos of the violence went viral online.
Reports said at least 129 recruits underwent various forms of physical and mental assault last Thursday as part of their initiation tradition into the PNP.
The incident took place at the RMFB’s headquarters in Barangay Ubit, Lamitan City, Basilan that included duck-walking, lying and rolling on the ground, and assault using wooden sticks and arnis sticks,” reports said.
Brigadier General Jaysen De Guzman, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region police director said appropriate administrative sanctions will be imposed on negligent supervisors while administrative and criminal charges will be filed against those directly involved.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Randulf Tuaño meanwhile said the victims’ injuries were physical, including hematoma that came from punches, slaps, and others.”
“All members of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 14B were removed and replaced with members of 14A. So, all of them, 70 plus, were administratively relieved,” Tuaño said in a press briefing at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame.
He said complainants blamed and identified 12 police non-commissioned officers as among the perpetrators while a PRO BAR police report identified five police corporals, five patrolmen, and other John Does as suspects.
Tuaño insisted the PNP has zero tolerance for hazing in training and welcome rites but it has in fact become a tradition in the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), including in its training schools such as the Philippine National Police Academy and the Philippine Military Academy.
The latest PNP casualty during initiation rites was Jaypee De Guzman Ramores on July 26, 2022 that sparked the investigation of 21 officers while the latest PMA hazing death was of Cadet Darwin Dormitorio in 2019 that led to the conviction of three of his upperclassmen.
While hazing has been made a criminal offense through Republic Act No. 11053 (the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018) it has been largely ignored in PNP and AFP “welcoming” and “graduating” rites.
He brutality has permeated and persisted among criminology, maritime and trainings of reserved officers.
A hazing-related murder, that of University of Santo Tomas cadet Mark Welson Chua in 2001, led to the abolition of mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in the country. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
