... so help me God!

I came home one Saturday night. Found my mom, lying on the couch – tired. I didn’t need to ask about her day as my brothers, on their grinning faces, told me ‘si mommy, sumali-sali.’

I was actually shocked about the news. My mom, who has always been anti-fraternity, has joined one of the world’s largest fraternal organizations. I can’t blame her. My lolo and lola have been initiated in that society and I won’t oppose my mom’s decision if she wants to follow their footsteps.

Then it hit me. My neophyte days flashed in an instant. Yes, I was a frat-man.

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Reporting is a process when neos bond with their ‘masters’ /‘ladies’. A lot of times, neos do things for their masters. Neos get to run some of their masters’ errands. There were times when neos would be asked to provide entertainment and other people would see this as public humiliation for neos. But the bottom line of this practice to get masters and neos to know more about each other. After all, they’ll become brothers.

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Just recently, the country was affected by another victim of hazing. It’s sad news. Imagine all hopes and dreams of the victim and his family is all gone.

In my dictionary, I don’t call the incident hazing. What happened was a cold-blooded murder. Whoever responsible for the death of that kid, should be dealt with according to the law.

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The first post that I held in our brotherhood made me responsible for our neophytes’ initiation rites. It was a big responsibility since it was my call to test our applicants’ loyalty to the organization. It was though to gauge the limit of each neophyte and then tell my brothers and sisters to cool down and stop during our rituals.

During our so-called finals – the final stage in our initiation process, everyone is reminded of our guidelines. We do have rules that are set for the safety of our neos – our brothers/sisters-to-be. We do literally draw the foul zones on our neos’ bodies. Anyone caught beating on these foul zones would be punished.

Fact, our neos get hurt. My brothers and I were all neos and we also got our experience of being beaten. Everyone in our so-called society has got the taste of our dreaded paddle. I won’t expound on the issue why this practice is necessary. But as I said, it is all about loyalty. When a neo yells ‘tama na, hindi ko na kaya’, then it is time to stop.

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Well, I’m just glad that I’m still here alive.