BROTHERS DO NOT KILL BROTHERS

No amount of tears or consolation from anyone can bring back an untimely lost of a young life… a senseless death lost in a ritual called HAZING.

Crusade Against Violence is headed by Mrs Gerarda Villa, the mother of Leny Villa who died of hazing in 1991. #stophazing

 We strongly condemn the criminal act of hazing committed by members of Tau Gamma Phi that claimed the lives of John Matthew Salilig and Ronnel M. Baguio. This devil continues to thrive even with the passage of RA 11053 or the Anti-hazing law of 2018.

Members of organizations and fraternities are not deterred from committing this grave offense as exemplified by the ten (10) lives that were taken after the passage of the anti-hazing law. This leads to the question of whether the law is sufficient to prevent hazing from proliferating.

We believe it’s the right time to review the antihazing law and call on Congress and Senate to conduct an inquiry regarding this matter.

Another impending threat to the welfare and safety of our youth is the impending passage of the mandatory ROTC law. To say that John Matthew Salilig’s death is irrelevant to the proposed bill is an insult to all hazing victims who died mercilessly from the hands of their so-called brothers.

We enjoin everyone, especially the Commission on Higher Education, Department of Education, Department on National Defense, Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police, and the Department of Justice, to please join our crusade against hazing and prevent this from further happening.

As an organization under the leadership of our president and founder, Mrs. Gerarda H. Villa, we commit to extend our full support to families of hazing victims, and we are hopeful that our battle for the past thirty-two years will bear fruit and finally put an end to hazing.

Photo from left to right: Mr. John Martin Salilig, Ms. Imelda Bermudez-Livioco (CAV), Atty. Persida Acosta, Ms. Ellen Gran (CAV) and Mr. Joeffrey Salilig (father of Mr. John Matthew Salilig)

Clearly, laws alone can only do so much to deter the
ignoble and criminal act of hazing.

The February 2020 National Conference to Stop Hazing encouraged all relevant government agencies and the private sector, specifically the university systems, to synergize all hazing prevention efforts and to raise awareness and prevention, prior the next start of classes. The 2020 Conference reiterated the call for a Presidential Proclamation to harmonize all efforts. With the unified efforts of Solidarity for Anti-Hazing Via Education (SAVE) under the leadership of Atty. Joey Lina and Crusade Against Violence under the leadership of Mrs. Gerarda Villa, Presidential Proclamation No. 907 was signed of Feb. 21, 2022 declaring every 2nd week of February as the National Hazing Prevention Week.