IN a reverse twist on hazing, six new graduates from the Philippine National Police Academy received a farewell beating from nine of their lowerclassmen in a shadowy tradition in which cadets get even with their upperclassmen.

Academy officials said the lowerclassmen waited for the graduates near their barracks following the graduation ceremonies on March 21. As the fresh graduates were packing up their belongings, the cadets attacked, beating them with paddles and rocks. Some of the victims suffered head injuries, and two of them eventually filed criminal charges against the nine lowerclassmen.

PNPA Director Joseph Adnol said the cadets held grudges against their upperclassmen, who were said to be strict taskmasters over the last year.

Police officials seemed divided over the existence of this tradition of getting even.

Expressing dismay at the mauling, PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa said the tradition should be stopped because it promotes a “cycle of violence.”

He said the tradition had been stopped before in 2005, but acknowledged that it was an “on-and-off tradition.”

Members of the PNPA Alumni Association, on the other hand, have denied that such a tradition exists. The PNPA director added that if such a tradition existed, it is not sanctioned by the academy. He described the mauling as an isolated incident.

But such denials are neither credible nor helpful, given the PNP chief’s candid admission that it exists and surfaces from time to time. The first step in solving a problem, after all, is to admit that it exists.

It may well be true that the PNPA does not sanction this tradition of getting even, but the same can be said about universities and the barbaric practice of hazing. Refusing to sanction a surreptitiously observed tradition, or even to admit it exists, does not make it go away.

The nine lowerclassmen apparently believed—wrongly, of course—that they were well within their rights to get even with their erstwhile taskmasters, but now they must pay the price.

The PNP says criminal and administrative charges will be filed against them, while the National Police Commission has threatened to dismiss them if they are found guilty.

The cadets must be punished, but it is difficult to consider this case without some regret that nine promising lives will go to waste, simply because the culture within the police academy was such that they felt it was all right to get even.

The PNPA has a responsibility to make sure that other cadets will not believe the same thing and go down the same ruinous road. / posted March 28, 2018 at 12:50 am by Manila Standard /