A young woman has lost both legs following an explosion at De La Salle University in Manila where law graduates congregated after the final day of their Bar examinations last Sunday. Raissa Laurel, a law student of San Sebastian College, suffered the worst injury among more than 40 victims in the blast that authorities said was caused by an Mk 2 fragmentation grenade.
You don’t know which is more frightening: the ease by which hand grenades can be obtained in this country, or the lack of compunction in lobbing it at a crowd of college students, with a clear intent to inflict maximum harm. As of yesterday investigators were pursuing their strongest lead: that the attack was part of a fraternity war, with three organizations mentioned and one fraternity member identified as a possible suspect.
If fraternities were involved in this violence, the organizations themselves should conduct an internal investigation and surrender the perpetrators. The more common reaction of these organizations in the past, however, has been to cover up for their members, and protect them all the way to their prosecution and incarceration.
If the attack was truly part of a fraternity war, it was not the worst of its kind. From the country’s top universities and colleges to fly-by-night educational institutions, fraternity wars and initiation rites have led to murder, homicide, gang rape, serious physical injuries and many perverted acts that ordinarily should send the perpetrators to prison for life or at least to an asylum for the deranged. In this country, thanks to fraternity brothers in the right places, youthful perpetrators can get off with something less than a slap on the wrist and even land a job in government.
That coddling is one of the biggest reasons for the persistence of a culture of violence among organizations that are supposed to foster youthful brotherhood. No sanctions are imposed, either by the state or school authorities, on fraternities whose members figure in violent and barbaric behavior. Until this situation is changed, we will see more people losing their limbs, and even their lives, because youths are allowed to give full rein to their darkest inclinations.
