Manila: A task force made up of different state agencies has been formed to address the worsening violence attributed to youth organisations.

“President Benigno Aquino III shares the concern of many parents and educators over the violations of the Anti-Hazing Law,” Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa said during the recent signing of a memorandum creating an inter-agency task force.

“The task force seeks to address the need to ensure justice for fatal victims of hazing and their families. At the same time, we have to look at whether the law can be improved so that its objectives are met,” he said.

Non-academic youth organisations had been around since the 1970s. Although governments in the past had largely ignored these groups — most of which profess to advocate noble causes — the involvement of some these organisations in ritual violence and gang fights had been a cause for alarm for authorities.

According to Ochoa, among key functions of the inter-agency task force is to review the Anti-Hazing Law or Republic Act No. 8049, which was put in place in 1995.

The most recent case of fraternity ritual violence or “hazing” took place last July. The victim, who died from the physical punishment he was forced to undergo, was 18-year-old Guillo Cesar Servando, a sophomore of the Catholic de la Salle-College of Saint Benilde in Manila.

Fraternal organisations and sororities are known to use violence — physical, psychological or otherwise, as part of the rites of passage for new members.

Aside from Servando, another suspected victim was 15-year-old Kenneth Inventor of Abkasa National High School in Bacolod, Central Philippines. The boy died Monday from “septic shock” after he suffered wounds from beatings. His family is now seeking justice, a report by the Bombo Radyo network said.

Over the decades there had been dozens of victims of hazing, some had made it to the headlines and had resulted in the imprisonment of perpetrators, but most passed on unnoticed by the public and without action from authorities. Ritual violence had been so common that not a year would pass without news concerning hazing-related deaths or involvement of youths in fatal acts of violence.

For its part, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said it is supporting government plans to do away with hazing in the country.

According to the CBCP’s website, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth chair Bishop Leopoldo Jaucian of Bangued said the review of the Anti-Hazing Law is a “welcome development that will guarantee the Filipino youth protection from the violent, often fatal rituals”.

Most educational institutions in the country are run by Catholic religious orders.