Cadet was maltreated, PMA admits

FORT DEL PILAR, Baguio City — The Philippine Military Academy admitted that Cadet Fourth class Darwin Dormitorio was “maltreated” citing medico-legal examinations results.

The cadet died after vomiting inside the barracks here on Wednesday early morning after he reportedly complained of stomach pain at around 1 a.m. He died at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday at the PMA station hospital where he was brought four hours after.

PMA physician Florence Apple Apostol noted that the initial cause of Dormitorio's death, who is from Cagayan de Oro City, was cardiac arrest secondary to internal hemorrhage.

Three cadets are currently detained by PMA authorities while probe is ongoing. Twenty other cadets, who possibly witnessed the alleged maltreatment, are being questioned.

PMA Superintendent Major General Ronnie Evangelista confirmed the incident but stressed that they "do not condone nor tolerate any malfeasance nor malpractices." 

"It [maltreatment] is actually taboo in PMA. It is not part of the training,” Evangelista said. 

“We are doing a lot of interventions,” he added.

Administrative charges are being readied by the PMA against the cadets involved while the Baguio City Police Office continues with its investigation. 

The Cadet Corps Armed Forces of the Philippines, represented by Cadet First Class cadet John Michael Navarro, denounced the maltreatment of the 20-year-old cadet.

“We, the Cadet Corps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines denounce those who seek to undermine the mission of our institution," Navarro read the statement.

"We are clear in our resolve to put an end to such excruciating acts that defy the very values the PMA instills and we stand as one Corps against maltreatment,” he added.

The death of Dormitorio came two years after a 19-year-old cadet named Erwin Christian Vergara passed away on May 1, 2017.

Vergara died at the Baguio General Hospital barely a month after he was admitted for military training due to "hypovolemic shock secondary to upper gastrointestinal bleeding secondary to bleeding peptic ulcer."  

The PMA, however, said that Vergara did not die due to maltreatment but because the cadet had ulcer.

In May 2016, a 19-year-old PMA plebe named Benedict Margin died of heat stroke during a joint field training exercise at Marine Base Gregorio Lim in Ternate, Cavite.