Albayalde: PMA parade held same day his class walked out over hazing

FORT DEL PILAR, Baguio City –– Police Gen. Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police, said the testimonial parade he received at the Philippine Military Academy on Saturday (Sept. 28) coincides with the day his PMA Sinagtala Class of 1986 walked out of their classrooms over a hazing case back in the 1980s.

Albayalde is set to retire on November 8.

He said Sinagtala Class initially intended to revisit the “Walk in, Walkout” event when members of his class protested the inclusion of two of their Mistahs (school mates) in a list of suspects implicated in a previous hazing case.

The class at the time were yearlings or cadets in their second year at the academy, he said.

Albayalde did not name the cadets victimized or who committed the maltreatment.

“We protested because we wanted the commandant of cadets to spare our classmates who had nothing to do with it … We thought walking out meant the end of our careers as cadets (and future military officers),” he told newsmen.

“We were punished. We marched under the heat of the sun,” Albayalde said, which was a legitimate form of punishment to discipline infractions, and not the beatings inflicted on Fourth Class Cadet Darwin Dormitorio who died at the PMA Station Hospital on Sept. 18.

Police forensic investigators discovered that Dormitorio, a plebe or a freshman cadet, bore internal injuries.

Albayalde said Sinagtala decided against proceeding with the Memorial. But Sinagtala alumni like Senator Ronald Dela Rose and outgoing PMA Superintendent Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista joined him at the Borromeo Field Grandstand.

Six cadets have been held by PMA for Dormitorio’s death.

The Baguio City Police Office expects to file charges against them next week when a member of Dormitorio’s family goes to the mountain city./lzb