3 PMA cadets get life term for fatal hazing

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Three former cadets of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) have been found guilty in the hazing death of a fellow cadet in 2019.

In a verdict released yesterday, Baguio City Regional Trial Court Judge Ligaya Itliong-Rivera sentenced to life imprisonment Shalimar Imperial, Felix Lumbag Jr. and Julius Tadena, for the death of Darwin Dormitorio, then 20 years old.

Tadena was specifically convicted of hazing and ordered to indemnify Dormitorio’s family P2 million. The two others were found guilty of murder.

Currently detained at a regional custodial facility, Tadena, Imperial and Lumbag are expected to be transferred to the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.

Dormitorio, from Cagayan de Oro and a member of the PMA Madasigon class of 2023, died on Sept. 18, 2019 at the PMA Hospital where he was brought the previous day after he was found unconscious inside a room at the Mayo Hall of the PMA at Fort Del Pilar.

According to court records, Dormitorio was said to have been beaten purportedly for losing a pair of boots of a senior cadet. His death came just two months after he entered the PMA.

In a statement he gave to the police before he died, Dormitorio said he was made to do physically abusive exercises in his room by Lumbag, Imperial and another cadet, who allegedly hit him in the ribcage “many times.”

Dormitorio was later brought to the PMA Hospital but was discharged after just four hours and given a prescription for a urinary tract infection.

The next day, he was found unconscious, unresponsive and with no more vital signs and was brought back to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

The diagnosis was cardiopulmonary arrest “probably secondary to blunt thoracoabdominal injury probably due to mauling.”

Authorities later found out that Dormitorio and other PMA plebes were forced to undergo electrocution via taser and other physical abuse from their upperclassmen for at least a month prior to his death.

Reacting to the court decision, Dormitorio family’s lawyer Jose Adrian Bonifacio said, “All the hard work and sacrifices after five years were all worth it.”

“We dedicate the (victory) to Darwin and his father, retired Col. William Dormitorio, who has died before the release of the decision,” he added. “I pray that Darwin and his father will finally have peace.”

The court also ordered the convicts to indemnify the heirs of Dormitorio P75,000, another P75,000 in moral damages and P25,000 in temporal damages. They were also ordered to pay P100,000 in attorney’s fees.

In August last year, Tadena and another cadet, Christian Zacarias, were convicted of slight physical injuries by the Baguio Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 1 and weresentenced to 30-day imprisonment.

Their co-accused, former PMA Station Hospital chief Lt. Col. Ceasar Candelaria, and medical officers Captain Flor Apple Apostol and Major Maria Ofelia Beloy were cleared of charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.

Aside from Lumbag, Tadena and Imperial, also charged with hazing, torture and murder of Dormitorio – but were eventually cleared – were First Class Cadet Axl Rey Sanupao, 2nd Class Cadet Zacarias and 3rd Class Cadets Rey David and John Volante.

In 2020, the Baguio Prosecutor’s Office dropped the hazing, torture and dereliction of duty charges against former PMA chief Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista and former commandant of cadets Brig. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro.