Marine officer dies after fitness test

MANILA, Philippines – A middle-grade Marine officer who was due for promotion collapsed and died yesterday morning, shortly after completing the military’s mandatory physical fitness test (PFT) at the Camp Aguinaldo parade ground.

Lt. Col. Leonard Vincent Teodoro, operations chief of the Philippine Marine Corps, “was talking with some colleagues. When they were about to leave, Teodoro collapsed just as he was going to board his car,” according to Col. Agane Adriatico, chief of the Armed Forces of Philippines Special Services, who supervised yesterday’s physical fitness tests.

Teodoro, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1989, was among the batch of middle-grade officers due for promotion to the rank of full colonel.

Adriatico said Teodoro was rushed to the Camp Aguinaldo Hospital, where military doctors tried to revive him “for almost an hour and a half, (but) his heart was not responding.” He said initial findings show that Teodoro suffered cardiac arrest.

Adriatico said the 3.2-kilometer run is really difficult to pass for those who do not jog regularly. He said that he expected Teodoro to handily pass the PFT, which included push-ups and sit-ups.

As a Marine officer, Teodoro formerly commanded the Marine Battalion Landing Team-7, which saw action against the Abu Sayyaf and terrorists in Basilan and Sulu.