3 ex-cadets in deadly PMA hazing found guilty

FIVE-YEAR QUEST ENDS The search for justice for the 2019 hazing death of Philippine Military Academy freshman cadet Darwin Dormitorio (center photo) ended on Friday after a Baguio City court found three former cadets—Shalimar Imperial Jr., Felix Lumbag Jr. and Julius Carlo Tadena (left photo, seated in hoodies and caps)—guilty of murder and for violation of the Anti-Hazing Act. —VINCENT CABREZA

BAGUIO CITY—Three former cadets of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) on Friday were found guilty for the 2019 hazing death of Darwin Dormitorio, then a plebe (freshman) at the country’s premier military training institution.

The decision rendered by Judge Maria Ligaya Itliong Rivera of Regional Trial Court Branch 5 convicting former Cadets Third Class (sophomore) Shalimar Imperial Jr. and Felix Lumbag Jr. for murder concluded a five-year controversy that has haunted the PMA.

Imperial and Lumbag, who are expecting a separate verdict in their court-martial by a military tribunal in Tarlac province, were also found guilty for violating the Anti-Hazing Act of 2018 (Republic Act No. 11053) alongside another former cadet, Julius Carlo Tadena. All three were sentenced to reclusion perpetua or a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Along with a fourth former cadet, Christian Zacarias, Tadena was earlier convicted for “slight physical injuries” suffered by the 20-year-old Dormitorio.

Tadena tortured Dormitorio with a torch-like taser at the cadet barracks’ Room 209, while Zacarias kicked him multiple times, according to the 100-page ruling that was promulgated on Aug. 4, 2023, by Judge Roberto Mabalot of the Baguio Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 1.

The former cadets appeared in court wearing caps and hoodies. Their families stayed away from reporters and did not issue any formal statements.

Only a few family members were allowed inside Judge Rivera’s courtroom. But some of them could not stop crying and had to be escorted out. Relatives covered their faces with jackets and blankets to shield them from news cameras.

Policy changes

Dormitorio, who would have graduated as member of PMA Class 2023, died on Sept. 18, 2019, following weeks of maltreatment and trauma uncovered by the Baguio City police. A report on his injuries showed Dormitorio’s death was caused by “blunt force trauma.”

Dexter, Dormitorio’s brother, said the convictions should clear any lingering reservations the military might still have about banning “traditions” associated with hazing in the uniformed services.

He said Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. “waged war against hazing” when he was appointed PMA commandant of cadets in 2019.

Then PMA superintendent, Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista, and then commandant of cadets, Brig. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, resigned citing “command responsibility” for Dormitorio’s death. Their resignation “paved the way for an impartial investigation,” Dexter said.

Now that the court has ruled that RA 11053 is enforceable inside PMA, “nothing prevents [Brawner] from applying changes within the [Armed Forces of the Philippines] organization because banning maltreatment and hazing must be a matter of policy,” he said.

Justice

“This is justice for Darwin,” said Jasmine Dormitorio, the plebe’s mother, who attended the promulgation of the decision.

“I am happy [and] I am contented with the decision. But this will not bring back my son’s life,” said Jasmine, whose late husband, retired Army Col. William Dormitorio, a graduate of PMA, had inspired Darwin to pursue a military career.

She said William, before he died, had forgiven the upper-class cadets who killed their son, but said she could not yet express the same sentiment.

“The wound from this experience has yet to heal,” she told reporters in Filipino.

In a message to the Inquirer, Col. Allen Rae Co, the former Baguio police director who led the Dormitorio case investigation, said he hoped the judgment “will give the family some measure of peace and closure.”

Now assigned at the Cagayan Valley regional police office in Tuguegarao City, Co stressed that Baguio police investigators had been thorough so “all those involved would be meted their due.”

Darwin’s ordeal

Testimonies from other PMA cadets collected by Co’s team in 2019 revealed that Lumbag and Imperial punched and kicked Dormitorio for nearly 20 minutes in Room 209 on Aug. 19 that year, “because he allegedly spent P2,000 of his P4,000 allowance,” according to a police briefing conducted that year.

From Aug. 20 to Aug. 27, Dormitorio was confined at the PMA’s Fort del Pilar Station Hospital to heal from multiple soft tissue hematoma on his abdomen and back and a partial burn on his left shoulder, the police had said. On Aug. 28, Dormitorio was punched on the nose allegedly by Imperial which caused it to bleed.

On Sept. 6, Dormitorio was again taken to the PMA hospital for a respiratory tract infection, and soft tissue contusion in his chest. On Sept. 14, Dormitorio was heard screaming in pain by a witness who claimed to have seen the plebe’s face covered with a cap that was dunked in alcohol. Dormitorio’s arms were bound tightly.

READ: Darwin Dormitorio slay case: 3 ex-PMA cadets guilty of murder, hazing

On Sept. 17, the eve of his death, Dormitorio was again taken to the hospital for abdominal pains, but some cadets testified that he was kicked on separate occasions during the day by Zacarias, Imperial and Lumbag, and was tasered by Tadena.

The following day, Dormitorio was back in the hospital where he died at 5:15 p.m.

The doctors who treated Dormitorio were also sued for negligence, but were acquitted by Judge Mabalot last year.

Aside from prison sentences, Imperial and Lumbag were each fined P3 million, while Tadena was asked to pay a P2-million penalty. Lumbag and Imperial were also directed to pay P175,000 in damages to the Dormitorio family and P100,000 in lawyers’ fees.

The AFP asked Judge Rivera to grant the military custody of the cadets, but she remanded the cadets to a civilian jail after they completed a medical examination at the PMA hospital. The cadets’ lawyers told the court they were appealing the ruling.