Police cadet dies; hazing eyed

A fourth class cadet at the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) died the other night following a welcome ritual by an upperclassman inside one of the academy’s comfort rooms in Silang, Cavite.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Rosales, Cavite police director, said Cadet Jeoffrey Andawi, 23, was declared dead on arrival at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday by attending physicians at the Adventist University of the Philippines Hospital, also in Silang.

Rosales believes that Andawi was a victim of hazing. If so, then that makes Andawi the third cadet to die of hazing since 1990 when the PNPA was transferred from Camp Vicente Lim, Laguna to Silang.

Third class Cadet Jomari Polquiso is now undergoing investigation by the Silang police in connection with the incident.

It was learned that both the victim and suspect came from the Cordillera Autonomous Region.

Initial reports said Andawi had just returned to the academy Sunday morning from a holiday break in the Cordilleras when Polquiso came in and summoned for assembly all his underclassmen from the region.

During the assembly, Polquiso reportedly singled out Andawi and led him to the comfort room on the third floor of the building.

Senior Superintendent Paul Bataoil, PNP spokesman, said initial reports from PNPA authorities said that inside the comfort room, Polquiso delivered a single blow to the victim’s stomach and left, probably not knowing that Andawi had fainted.

Andawi’s head probably hit a hard object when he fainted, according to Bataoil.

Findings of the PNP Crime Laboratory showed that Andawi died due to traumatic head injuries, "probably caused by blunt instruments."

Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. ordered Deputy Director General Ramsey Ocampo, president of the Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC), to investigate the incident.

The PNPA is under the administrative and operational control of PPSC.

Lina said Ocampo could decide on what to do with PNPA officials who could have been remiss in preventing the long-banned hazing from taking place again in the academy. — With Rene Alviar