Is there any way to disable "+ RULE" hint in Oracle 11gR2

I have a vendor-written application that is creating SQL statements with the "+ RULE" hint.

Is there any way to disable use of the "+ RULE" hint so the CBO will be used?

Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.4.0 - 64bit Production With the Automatic Storage Management option

optimizer_features_enable = 11.2.0.4

optimizer_mode = ALL_ROWS

SELECT   /*+ RULE */

         DISTINCT

         n.ITEMNAME,

         v.ITEMOBJID,

         v.ITEMTYPE,

         v.VERSIONOBJID,

         v.PACKAGEOBJID,

         v.PARENTVERSIONID,

         v.MERGEDVERSIONID,

         v.MAPPEDVERSION,

         v.VERSIONSTATUS,

         v.INBRANCH,

         p.PACKAGENAME,

         v.CREATIONTIME,

         v.CREATORID,

         v.DESCRIPTION,

         v.VERSIONDATAOBJID,

         v.CLIENTMACHINE,

         v.CLIENTPATH,

         u2.USERNAME                      CREATORNAME,

         u1.USERNAME                      MODIFIERNAME,

         v.MODIFIERID,

         v.MODIFIEDTIME,