Choice needs lots of thinking
“Barbarians” was the moniker given to nonfraternity members when I was in the University of the Philippines in Diliman in the 1960s. I remained a “barbarian” until I finished my BS Mechanical Engineering in 1970.
Through those years, though, my circle of friends grew wider—not only with fellow “barbarians” but with many frat men as well. I had friends from Alpha Phi Beta and Sigma Rho, Upsilon Sigma Phi, Beta Sigma, Beta Epsilon, Tau Alpha and, of course, Alpha Phi Omega.
Among the things we did together were: “shugged-a-lugged” bottles of spirits while singing country, ribald or love songs with guitar accompaniment; played billiards and bowling at the UP Recreation Center; played poker, black jack or lucky “9” in our rooms; or just rated the coeds going to the Main Library from “1” to “10” during our off-hours, which was most of the time.
It really makes me laugh looking back at the first three years of mine in UP, when our main concern—along with Manong Alfonso “Boy” Reyno, a Sigma Rhoan—was merely not to get “Kicked Out of UP”!
The two earliest victims of fraternity hazing cited by “Mom” in her open-letter to her 11-year-old son were more than casual acquaintances of mine.
Ferdinand Tabtab was my classmate in Kindergarten in San Fernando City, La Union; and one of the officers of the Alpha Phi Omega during the incident was my very close friend for four years in high school, also in La Union. My high school buddy was not able to finish his degree at UP as a consequence of Ferdinand’s demise.
Roland Perez of the Upsilon Sigma Phi was my housemate at Professor Machan’s place behind the UP Cooperative then. He was not a fraternity hazing victim! He was killed in a clash with Beta Sigmans after the Loyalty-Arbor Day Hayride in 1969. Ironically, an older brother of Roland belonged to the Beta Sigma.
During those days the fraternities gave a lot of color to life in UP like supporting UP teams in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines; participating in activities like hayrides, debates, elections—and entertaining the “barbarians” during the occasional rumbles between frats.
Many of the excellent products of UP in our days are frat men—the Garcias, Drilons, Gordons, Binays, Alilings, et al.
The fraternities then had different modes of initiation for admission of members. Many had combinations of mental and physical tests in varying ratios. To remove the physical component or not from the process was even then always a topic of debates. And now we have legislation on antihazing, but like many of the laws of the land, the gap is in the enforcement, maybe.
To join a fraternity or not is a choice that needs a lot of consideration.
—JOSEPH A. DUMUK,
BSME, UP 1970,
MM (Public Administration), UP 1982,
