PMA: Graduating class benefits from reforms after hazing death in 2019

FORT DEL PILAR, BAGUIO CITY—This year’s graduating cadets of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) benefited from reforms resulting from the 2019 hazing death of their classmate, Darwin Dormitorio, making them arguably the most protected batch of military students in recent memory, officials said on Monday.

The PMA and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have instituted sufficient measures to ensure that all cadets under their care are safe, said Brig. Gen. Julius Tomines, commandant of cadets and head of the PMA’s Tactics Group, during a press briefing held to announce the top 10 cadets of the Madasigon Class of 2023.

Dormitorio was found unconscious at the plebes’ barracks and died while undergoing treatment on Sept. 17, 2019, from “blunt force trauma,” for which three senior cadets were charged.

Tomines, a 1992 graduate of the United States Military Academy in New York’s West Point, said all plebes were housed separately from the rest of the cadet corps. Upperclassmen (third- to first-class cadets) have to schedule their supervisory visits.

According to Tomines, the academy has “intensified leadership training,” which teaches respect as a prominent value. This meant “we respect human rights,” the official said.

‘Village effort’

“Educating our cadets is a village effort,” he said, adding that PMA also imposes what it calls a “corrective training policy.”

Senior cadets are obliged to “address directly the failures and [poor] performances of the underclass cadets they are correcting instead of imposing physical punishment, which may lead to maltreatment,” Tomines said.

He said the PMA had also expanded its network of security cameras throughout the military school to reduce or eliminate any opportunity for maltreatment.

“All members of this class stood out on their own merits,” said Lt. Gen. Rowen Tolentino, the PMA superintendent.

The 311-member Madasigon was the last class to enter the academy before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the PMA to enforce a lockdown to spare its cadets from the disease that impacted the lives and economies of Baguio City and the rest of the country. The PMA lifted its lockdown in March last year.

“In the following weeks, as you wear your uniform in your respective branches of service, expect that you will receive bigger and more arduous responsibilities,” Tolentino advised the top cadets. He said they must “always put to heart all the life lessons you have gained during your stay in the academy.” INQ

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