LT. GEN. Ronnie Evangelista resigned last Tuesday as superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), over the death of hazing victim first-year cadet Darwin Dormitorio.
Cadet Dormitorio died at 5:15 a.m. last Wednesday, September 18, at the PMA station hospital. He had been brought to the hospital, complaining of abdominal pains, on the morning of September 17 but was sent back to barracks after nothing serious was reported found. By 11 p.m., he was vomiting. He was found unconscious the next morning and brought back to the hospital at 4 a.m. He was dead by 5:15 a.m. The cause of death was cardiac arrest secondary to internal hemorrhage.
Three other freshman PMA cadets were later found to have been hospitalized at the V. Luna military hospital in Quezon City, all suffering from abdominal pains, apparently also from maltreatment. The two are responding to medication and are now in stable condition, Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said.
Four upperclassmen have been dismissed from the PMA – two squadmates of Dormitorio for “direct participation,” the squad leader for “command responsibility,” and a graduating cadet for “encouraging maltreatment.” Suspended were Dormitorio’s platoon leader and commanding officer, both 1st class cadets. A floor inspector, also a 1st class cadet, suffered demerits and confinement.
Relieved of their posts were four PMA officials – Dormitorio’s tactical officer and senior tactical officer, the commanding officer of the PMA Hospital, and the physician who had attended to Dormitorio.
Last Tuesday, the head of the PMA himself, General Evangelista, resigned his post. “In the military tradition of command responsibility, it is now the proper time for me as head of this institution, together with the Commandant of Cadets (Brig. Gen. Bartolome V. Bacarro), to relinguish our respective positions,” he said. “I did not leave my post in the midst of crisis. I faced the problem squarely and we have finished the investigation.
As I resign my post, it is now up to the proper authority to decide on the finality of the case.”
From the time the case was reported, the general public response had been condemnation of the hazing that had resulted in the death of Dormitorio. Hazing at the PMA and in university fraternities has long been denounced as an ugly tradition, so contrary to Filipino values, which reject harming the helpless among us. But it will continue as long as PMA and university officials tolerate it. President Duterte himself was reported to have expressed outrage over the death of young cadet Dormitorio.
General Evangelista is to be commended for his forthright decision to step down from his post as overall chief at PMA stand. He knows he ought to have acted earlier to stop hazing, a long discredited and condemned tradition, or, at the very least, ensure against excesses by twisted, cruel minds. Now he must accept the inevitable punishment for his negligence.
There will be punishment for the actual perpetrators of this hazing death. More important, there must never be another such death – at the PMA or at any other school in the country – possibly through a law as proposed by some legislators. And all responsible officials must now take definite steps to put a stop to it in their respective jurisdictions.
