Lost hopes for hazing victim’s mom

CAMILING, Tarlac — Cadet Fourth Class Edward Domingo was his mother’s lone hope of getting out of poverty. He was his class valedictorian in high school, and his joining the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) had given his mother Leonida more reasons to keep hoping.

But now all those hopes are gone.

Edward died in a so-called "celebration rite" which is, in fact, a brutal hazing, in the hands of his original classmates last week. He was 23, and the celebration was supposed to mark his passing of his academic subjects.

Leonida said she would have asked Edward to take up a regular course, say engineering, had she known that he would only die at the PMA. "I only followed his wishes," she said in Ilocano.

Leonida works as a mere housemaid for a relative, who had allowed her family to put up a small shanty in his compound. A widow, she can neither read nor write. What she does best is wash clothes for other people in Barangay Poblacion Segundo here to support her five children.

She had been crying and sobbing since Edward died. "I already want to die," she said, her face showing years of struggle. Her relatives fear she may suffer a stroke, which she had last year. And they are all watching her closely as Sunday nears.

It is tomorrow that she will last see Edward - her firstborn and only hope - for the last time when he is buried.