PMA chief, commandant quit

The wake for Darwin Dormitorio is being held at Cosmopolitan Memorial Chapel in Cagayan de Oro.

Philippine Military Academy (PMA) superintendent Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista stepped down Tuesday amid alleged hazing activities inside the country’s premier military school.

The commandant of the Corps of Cadets, Brig. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro, also quit. He was in charge of training.

Evangelista said he is assuming command responsibility over the death of Cadet Fourthclass Darwin Dormitorio, the 20-year-old Cagayan de Oro plebe who succumbed to internal injuries on 17 September after undergoing hazing rites.

No one pressured him to step down, Evangelista clarified.

“This is the right time to step down. Nobody pressured me to resign. It is the virtue of command responsibility,” said Evangelista.

At the same time, at least four cadets involved in the Dormitorio incident have been expelled even as three other cadets remain at the PMA hospital due to alleged hazing beatings.

The three all complained of pain in the abdomen. Two are confined at the V. Luna Medical Center in Quezon City while the third plebe had to be transferred to the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig to undergo laboratory tests not available in military hospitals.

The doctor who attended to Dormitorio at the PMA hospital was also removed from the academy and will be slapped with criminal charges.

The remains of Dormitorio, the youngest of three children, arrived in CDO on Saturday. Interment is set Wednesday.

Brother Darwin said their father, who is also a PMA alumnus, is aware of hazing activities inside the academy but does not support it as a form of discipline.

“Our father briefed Darwin about hazing but what we cannot accept is he seemed to have undergone beatings for consecutive days,” Dexter said in a radio interview. “Our father still respects the institution despite what happened but we are all distraught over what happened. He has always been against hazing.”

Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año has instructed the Philippine National Police-Cordillera to make sure no cover-up will happen regarding Dormitorio’s death.

“Everybody liable, criminally and administratively, should be charged and given appropriate disciplinary action,” Año said.

“There should be no hazing in the PMA. There are a lot of measures put up to address that. There is only a need to seriously implement it.”