Old school memories: MedSch fraternity

A few weeks into our life as freshman in medical school, the class was taken over momentarily by some guys in the higher years who introduced themselves as a fraternity and they extolled the benefits that we could have if we joined them. After they left someone in the class stood up and asked the class what they thought about the invitation. Some nodded their heads and said that it was a good idea, but there were others who wanted to know how it fared with the classmates of these frat guys who didn't join them. It was like we wanted to check on their identities and background. In a few days the idea came out that it would be better for us to organize another fraternity/sorority with some guys in the batch ahead of us, and the rest is history.

My medical school class - 1983, was the third batch of students in the newly founded medical school of Ateneo de Davao University. Our school's name was and still is Davao Medical School Foundation, and in the first years of its existence classes were held in the rooms of an old wooden building behind the San Pedro Hospital while the buildings of a new school in a campus at Bacaca was being constructed. Our teachers were a motley bunch of doctors from all the hospitals in Davao city and we discovered later that they were the cream of the medical practitioners in Davao city then.

With the goal to organize another fraternity beckoning, we had to devote some precious time for brainstorming and planning. There were some fratmen in our midst and a lot of wisecracks, which guaranteed that our plans would come to fruitage, and in a few weeks we had the name and a rudimentary constitution.

Hazing was an unforgettable experience for all of us. We divided ourselves into two groups and then devoted one day for each group hazing the other. This was held in the vacant house on the hills by the diversion road near the present crocodile park in Maa. A carabao wallowing hole was conveniently situated in the same lot and it was the scene of some gruesome activity.

This fraternity would eventually lead in scholastic and extra-curricular activities while multiplying with additional batches every new school year. However, with the incidents of hazing deaths in the universities nationwide and the subsequent order of the government to ban fraternity activities, this fraternity wrapped up on itself and stopped growing.

The most cherished and endearing moments in medical school were made with these friends and there is no doubt that life in those difficult years was made easier with the support of the fraternity. 

The original and pioneer batch of Socci Omnium Medicorum confraternity

during one of the hazing sorties in a coconut plantation by the Times Beach. 

The hillbilly is the guy in shorts in the foreground.