LAST April 3, news reports said that three upperclassmen had committed hazing against 22 first year cadets (plebes) of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA). The physical harm inflicted was not merely to test the cadets’ endurance but constituted vicious assaults and senseless violence, such as hitting them with blunt objects, and pouring a mixture of drain cleaner and muriatic acid onto the victims’ bodies and private parts. Worse, it took days before the PNPA higher-ups reported the crime to the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, despite hazing being penalized under Republic Act (RA) 11053, or the Anti-Hazing Law.
Hazing is the exercise of psychological dominance by a superior over subordinates through intimidation, physical violence and brutality. Despite the heavy penalties imposed by the law — including reclusion perpetua (20 years and one day to 40 years in jail) and continuing efforts to stamp it out — these organized acts of violence have persisted in the country’s top schools through fraternities and in uniformed service academies through their historic caste-like system.
Hazing has remained pervasive because of a confluence of reasons. One is that asymmetrical power relations have long existed in the PNPA. Upperclassmen are given the authority to discipline and enforce character formation among lowerclassmen. The aim is good — to build leadership among senior students and encourage mentorship. However, through the decades, this has been distorted from a sense of affiliation into an instrument for abuse, and even satisfying an individual’s sadistic impulses.
Another reason is the inadequacy of PNPA’s tactical officers tasked to oversee and rein in the upperclassmen who exceed their harsh authority. Many of these PNP officers are not fully committed to genuinely shepherding cadets, but instead treat their assignment as a temporary station before moving to higher positions. Moreover, they have actively tolerated and promoted these abuses, ostensibly to harden the cadets in the event of capture or torture by enemies. This justification is illogical and raises serious doubts about the methods used in the PNPA to train future police officers.
Finally, the PNPA was once a constituent unit under the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) — the institution created under RA 6975 to train officers of the PNP, the Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. However, Congress later transferred the PNP under the direct command of the PNP through RA 11279. Since then, incidents involving misconduct in the PNPA unraveled, including sex scandals and allegations of cadet abuse. One such case involved a homosexual police major accused of coercing a cadet into giving him a massage in nude and performing fellatio on him. This recent incident involving the 22 cadets subjected to chemical burns shows that hazing seems to be deeply entrenched in the academy. These events erode public confidence, as these same cadets will soon become police officers sworn to serve and protect the communities.
The institutional culture of hazing and abuse in the PNPA is condemnable. When the academy was carved out of the PPSC and placed under the PNP, its leaders assured Congress that this would strengthen discipline, improve training and enhance oversight of the cadets. Yet what has transpired appears to be the opposite — it has disgraced the PNP as a professional institution.
Today, the PPSC oversees the training of fire and jail cadets under the Philippine Public Safety Academy. It has strictly maintained a zero-hazing policy, resulting in almost perfect cohort survival among the graduating cadets — without injuries, deaths or intimidation.
Taking a page from history into how uniformed personnel should be trained and prepared. When Cuban leader Fidel Castro appointed his best strategist, Che Guevara, to oversee the training and indoctrination of their revolutionary forces and new recruits, many in his circle wondered and even opposed his decision. Yet Castro’s choice proved consequential since he entrusted the responsibility of shaping the competence and discipline of his future officers to his most capable man. Cuba’s old regime eventually fell to Castro’s revolution. Unlike Che Guevara, the PNP’s leaders send their worst and most abusive tactical officers into the academy — sexual predators and torturers who are destroying our future police officers.
The proper education and orientation of these PNPA cadets are crucial to a modern, democratic and progressive society. Anything less is a disservice to the Filipino people. Congress should seriously reconsider whether the PNP should continue to oversee the PNPA.
