By Jojo Mangahis
BAGUIO CITY— Five Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadets and a doctor will face criminal charges related to the death of cadet Darwin Dormitorio.
The police officer bared that they obtained affidavits of 11 cadets and two soldiers, whose statements were used as the bases to link the responsibility of the three PMAers namely Cadet First Class Axl Rey Sanupao, Cadet Third Class Shalimar Imperial and Cadet Third Class Felix Lumbag.
Two unidentified third class PMA cadets were recently added to those who will be charged but are now housed in a separate area from the three earlier named cadets.
Academy Physician Capt. Flor Apple Apostol will also face a separate charge for criminal negligence by diagnosing the plebe as suffering from urinary tract infection (UTI) contrary to police autopsy which showed he suffered from internal injuries.
Police Col. Allen Rae Co of the Baguio City Police Office said “We are waiting for the family to come and we will be filing it [case] with the prosecutor’s office.”
Co also bared that they could file a supplemental affidavit to identify more persons of interest to the initial charges, thus possibly filing more cases against other people as the investigation has not yet ended.
Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista, who recently resigned as PMA superintendent pointed out that the Honor Code can be used to coerce cadets to expose malpractices going on inside the campus.
The Honor Code espouses the “principles of fearless truth regardless of consequence”, emphasizing that cadets “do not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate among us those who do so”.
The former superintendent pointed out that “We can do direct questioning to ferry out violations of maltreatment because we cannot anymore consider maltreatment as a mere violation of regulation but rather, it is in violation of anti-hazing law.”
To ensure that there is no more risk of cruelty and abuse, Evangelista added that PMA has begun a series of evaluations on the healthcare structure, the conduct of its leaders as well as the training culture.
Meanwhile, the Gabriela Youth network expressed its concern over the safety of the PMA women cadets who might have been subjected to hazing, maltreatment or abuse of any kind.
The group expressed contempt over the death of Dormitorio, the act of hazing, and the culture that it supported, thus the call of concern for women PMAers.