Lorenzana visits PMA wake of slain cadet

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

BAGUIO CITY — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana condoled with the parents of hazing victim Cadet Fourth Class Darwin Dormitorio on Saturday (Sept. 21) at a wake organized inside the Philippine Military Academy, according to the academy’s spokesman.

Lorenzana later met with PMA officials and the cadet corps behind closed doors to see how they have been coping with Dormitorio’s death, said Maj. Reynan Afan, chief of the PMA public information office.

Dormitorio died at the PMA Hospital at dawn on Wednesday (Sept. 18) from what turned out to be internal bleeding induced by “blunt force trauma” following a police autopsy.

Three of his senior cadets have been identified as persons-of-interest and have been confined at PMA detention facilities, said Lt.Gen Ronnie Evangelista, superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy, at a news conference on Friday (Sept. 20).

Injuries to the abdomen proved that the boy had suffered punches or kicks, said Police Capt. Reynaldo Dave, a pathologist of the Baguio City Police Office. The cadet’s remains bore surface contusions, while traces of torn tissue were detected in the boy’s organs, he added. But the police did not reveal when the beatings took place.

PMA officials and its teaching staff joined a Saturday morning Mass held for Dormitorio, who entered the Academy in June and was formally incorporated into the cadet corps as a member of PMA Class of 2023 in July.

As a new recruit, Dormitorio had not yet attended the courses taught by some of the PMA professors who attended his wake, one teacher said.

He is the son of retired Col. William Dormitorio, a member of PMA Marangal Class of 1974.

The plebe’s remains were scheduled to be flown back to Mindanao on Saturday.

PMA remains closed to the public this weekend because of the ongoing Investigation./lzb