Police in Baguio City said Friday they are poised to file murder charges and violations of the Anti-Hazing Law against the suspects in the suspected hazing that killed 4th-class cadet Darwin Dormitorio at the Philippine Military Academy on Sept. 18.
They also said they had identified a sixth cadet allegedly involved in maltreating Dormitorio, who is already buried in his home city of Cagayan de Oro.
Cordillera regional police chief Brig. Gen. Israel Ephraim Dickson said there is another 2nd-class PMA cadet, whom the police did not name, who “was one of the last cadets to touch Dormitorio before he was brought to the hospital. He appeared to have inflicted damage on the victim’s body.”
This sixth cadet allegedly punished Dormitorio for lying on a bed that was not his own, after he was punished by other upperclassmen for allegedly losing a pair of combat boots, said Baguio City police chief Col. Allen Rae Co.
The announcement coincided with reports, also from the Baguio police, that suggested Dormitorio personally detailed the beating he endured from his upperclassmen one month before he died.
Asked how strong the murder charges would be, Co said: “We established there was evident premeditation to harm Cadet Dormitorio.”
“We will just be referring this to the Prosecutor’s Office which will conduct its own evaluation,” he added.
Police previously named three of the suspects—3rd class Cadets Shalimar Imperial and Felix Lumbag and a certain Cadet Manalo.
Co said they would withhold the identities of the other three suspects until they bring it to the prosecution, adding the number of suspects could still increase.
The Baguio police on Friday shared a photo with members of media of the purported handwritten letter
written by the plebe in which he recalled what happened on the night of Aug. 21, detailing the abuse he received from his fellow cadets.
Dormitorio said Imperial, Lumbag, and Manalo deemed spending half of his allowance as a punishable offense.
In a related development, Magdalo Party-list Rep. Manuel Cabochan said that hazing was never a rite of passage for plebes, adding: “I won’t say it’s culture within the academy. Because when we say culture, it’s a way of life. We also cannot say it is a tradition.”
Cabochan, in a television interview, said: “When we say tradition it is something symbolic that you have to pass on from generations to generations.”
Cabochan, PMA graduate in 1995 before joining the Navy, said hazing was practiced in the academy to instill discipline among plebes.
“But hazing is never tolerated in the academy. An offense is still a crime and those liable for the offense should be made accountable,” Cabochan said.
“Hazing inflicts bodily harm that endangers the mental, physical and academic health of the plebe,” he added. But he was quick to say this was not deliberate and must be calculated.
“[Surviving] hazing is not a rite of passage that every individual who has to go through the academy must experience,” Cabochan said.
He believes the practice of hazing in the country’s premier military school must stop.
“We have to find ways [to do away with hazing] like more strenuous exercises and all other trainings in the academy more rigorous. We have to find ways that physical contact will be limited. We have to have guidelines and we have to control the environment to do it,” Cabochan said.
Dormitorio said he was ordered by his upperclassmen to do “pumping exercises” and “bridge under bunks,” which led him to getting punched and hit.
“I fell from bridge under bunk many times and hit the floor many times. Cadet Lumbag was very angry and made me raise my arm up high and punched me in the body in the rib part. I was hit a few times more after,” he said.
Police said Dormitorio was hospitalized in August.
Imperial and Lumbag have been dismissed for their “direct participation” in the fatal hazing of Dormitorio after following the “encouragement for maltreatment” of Cadet 1st class Axl Ray Sanupao.
The three cadets and two new unnamed third class cadets, who are in PMA custody, are set to be charged on September 30 for violating the Anti-Hazing Law.
READ: Two more PMA cadets tagged in hazing death, names withheld
After his hospitalization in August, he was brought back to the PMA Hospital on Sept. 17. Dormitorio was diagnosed with urinary tract infection and discharged after a four-hour observation. Hours later, he was back at the barracks where he began vomiting. He was found unconscious early morning the next day. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
The medical officer in charge of Dormitorio will also be charged with criminal negligence, according to police.
Meanwhile, acting PMA Commandant of Cadets BGen. Romeo Brawner Jr. declared a war on hazing. He said he would scrutinize the implementation of the PMA Honor Code, which states, “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
