Fix ‘tarnished’ image, PMA told

TRAINING LEADERS Young men and women who enter the Philippine Military Academy each year are educated and trained by the government to become the country’s defenders and leaders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. —EDWIN BACASMAS

BAGUIO CITY—The police have requested access to the digital information on slain cadet Darwin Dormitorio, who registered as a new Baguio voter five days before he died on Sept. 18 from severe beatings from senior cadets at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

The request has been sent to the Manila office of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) “for purposes of the ongoing investigation,” said lawyer John Martin, Baguio election officer.

Martin did not give details about the request and said he could not validate reports that the photographs and other biometric information submitted by Dormitorio, as well as other cadets, might reveal signs of bruising. Voters’ information are strictly confidential, he said.

Dormitorio was among the 942 cadets and soldiers assigned at Fort Del Pilar here who registered as voters in a special off-site listing at the PMA.

‘Complicated case’

On Thursday, Dormitorio’s brother, Dexter, participated in a case conference regarding the criminal complaints to be filed against seven PMA cadets in connection with the fatal hazing. Among them were Cadet 1st Class Axl Rey Sanopao and Cadet 2nd Class Christian Zacarias.

But the complaints against Sanopao, Zacarias and Cadets 3rd Class Felix Lumbag Jr., Shalimar Imperial, John Vincent Manalo, Julius Carlo Tadena and Rey David John Volante have yet to be transmitted to the Baguio prosecutor’s office.

“We want to complete the paper work. We want it to be complete. We want to submit an airtight complaint,” Dexter said, after a two-hour closed door meeting between his counsel, Jose Adrian Bonifacio, and the lawyers of the Baguio police and the PMA.

Bonifacio would not discuss what the lawyers would file against the cadets, but Police Col. Allan Rae Co, Baguio police director, said hazing charges were “still on the table.”

“We want the proper charges to be well defined. We don’t want these to be dismissed outright. It’s a very complicated case. We need to piece together all the angles … But certainly we will file the complaint at the soonest,” Bonifacio said.

CONDEMNATION Students from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, stage a protest action to condemn violence at the PMA and appeal for justice for the death of cadet Darwin Dormitorio, a victim of hazing at the academy. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Reforms

Dexter said his family was also concerned about the impact of Dormitorio’s death on the PMA. Their father, William, a retired Army colonel, is a member of the PMA “Marangal” Class of 1974.

“We also want to repair the reputation of the academy since it was tarnished,” Dexter told reporters here.

But their mother wanted reforms to end hazing in the academy, he said, adding that, “We want an end to violence which is used [as an instrument in] teaching discipline.”

Bonifacio said: “The basis in drafting the complaint will be based on the sworn statements gathered by the police.”

Since August

Fourteen cadets and two soldiers testified that Dormitorio had been maltreated as far back as August since he joined the PMA in June as a member of Class of 2023.

Several cadets said Dormitorio was punched and kicked by Lumbag and Imperial for 20 minutes on Aug. 19, for spending half of his P4,000 allowance. The beatings landed him at the PMA Hospital where he was confined for eight days.

A week before the Comelec set up its online voters’ registration at the academy, the plebe was returned to the hospital on Sept. 6 for soft tissue contusions in the chest as well as for respiratory tract infection. But his roommates said he was treated for a swollen jaw and a toothache.

On Sept. 14, Lumbag, Imperial and Manalo tried to suffocate the plebe with a plastic coating of a cadet dress cap. Dormitorio was again taken to the hospital on Sept. 17, after another beating but was discharged and given medicine for urinary tract infection.

He was beaten again and tasered, along with a classmate. After vomiting at dawn on Sept. 18, Dormitorio was found unconscious and was taken to the hospital where he died.