Campus violence

By Jun Velasco

THERE’S an eerie peace in the city’s university belt.

Part of the uneasy atmosphere on the campus is the unnecessary rift (is there?) between Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez and University of Pangasinan students adviser Dominador Rayos  over the existence or activities of rival school fraternities which are being blamed for the reports on campus violence lately.

 We saw yesterday a fuming Boy Rayos, piqued, he said, by VM Alvin’s display of hubris when “he put words into my mouth that I am advocating a ban of the four-letter word groups in Dagupan.” (read last week’s Punch).

Boy said: “Who in his right mind would advocate a ban of fraternities? That’s crazy!”

The young Fernandez’s hubris could be traced all the way to Rayos’ seeking to address  the Sanggunian of which Alvin is presiding officer to denounce the breakdown of law on the campus.

We thought Boy Rayos, who was a former city councilor himself, was just missing his vocal power, the thing he loved to do in that not so august body now, to do a Demosthenes or a Winston Churchill. 

The Sanggunian under its leader, Alvin, was gracious enough to allow him to use his lung power, and so on the floor of that not so august body, Boy Rayos called for a crafting of an   ordinance to stop campus violence citing reports of students and faculty members being mauled on the campus or in the neighborhood, stressing that his action was meant to prevent a possible exodus of   students and professors to other schools outside the city.

Very patriotic, very Dagupeno!

Boy carried a good wallop there, and we thought the Sanggunian and Vice Mayor Alvin had no reason not to welcome it.

What must have irked Alvin and his Sanggunian was the off shoot of Boy Rayos’ rhetoric which blamed the Sanggunian for its failure to pass an ordinance to stop frat-caused campus violence.

It was not only Boy Rayos who raked up the coals against the Sanggunian on the frat issue, by the way. Our neighbor in this page, Lyceum Northwestern University president Gonzalo Duque, in a recent column also fired stinging salvoes against the Sanggunian on the subject. It must befairly presumed that both Boy and Gons of the city’s university belt knew whereof they were talking about.

   Gonzalo Duque co-chairs with Mayor Benjie Lim the city Peace and Order Council which is precisely tasked to oversee its job.

 So what’s the fuss, gentlemen?

 This corner suggests that campus violence statistics in the city be made soonest with the root cause or causes identified. Police Chief Ed Basbas who must be squarely called to account for this breakdown of peace should be in the forefront of concern.

Alvin is right when he was quoted last week that frat-created violence was a school responsibility. Yes to that, but when violence gets out of hand as to reach the halls of the city council and newspaper editorials, the ball bounces in his court.

  The matter should be a tripartite affair of government, civic, school and the public. Vice Mayor Alvin should welcome this extraordinary concern by community leaders. Never mind if  he mistook   Boy Rayos’ diatribes as a “ban” and not mere regulation so long as  the ban  is  made to swoop down  only on the misbehavior, on  the violence, on  the illegal,  on the   incidents  not germane to  the existence of fraternities itself, which is internationally allowed, but on  violence due to fraternity  rivalries which Alvin and all of us must abhor.  

Boy says “regulate, not ban frat activities.” Well?  What do you think, Alvin? Boy’s suggestion is reeking of love and care for the city.

How about the elusive Sanggunian ordinance? Mayor Lim had endorsed its crafting twice, according to Gons.  Your move, Sir Alvin?

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