THE Baguio Municipal Trial Court in Cities Branch 1 is set to rule today on the 2019 fatal hazing of Philippine Military Academy 4th Class Cadet Darwin Dormitorio.
Presiding Judge Roberto Mabalot has set the promulgation of the decision at 8:30 a.m. Friday (August 4).
The case involves cases of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide filed against PMA officials Capt. Flor Apple Apostol, Maj. Ofelia Beloy and Lt. Col. Caesar Almer Candelaria; serious physical injuries against former cadet 3rd Class Julius Tadena, and less serious physical injuries against then cadet 2nd Class Christan Zacarias.
The murder and hazing cases slapped against then 3rd Classmen Felix Lumbag Jr. and Shalimar Imperial Jr. have yet to be resolved by the court.
Lumbag and Imperial, who are both under military custody, are the principal suspects in Dormitorio’s death.
Apostol, Beloy and Candelaria are currently out on bail.
The three PMA officials who were working at the time at the academy’s station hospital, with Candelaria as the commanding officer, have denied misdiagnosing Dormitorio, who was treated for urinary tract infections, hours before his death on Sept. 18, 2019
Dormitorio died due to injuries allegedly inflicted by his upperclassmen in the military academy.
He would have graduated last May as a member of the PMA Madasigon Class of 2023.
The fatal hazing incident prompted then PMA Commandant of Cadets Bartolome Vicente Bacarro and PMA Superintendent Lt. General Ronnie Evangelista to resign from their posts.
The Baguio City Prosecutor’s Office later cleared Bacarro, Evangelista, three other PMA officials and three cadets of wrongdoing for lack of probable cause.
Dormitorio’s death came two years after the fatal hazing of University of Sto. Tomas first year law student Horacio “Atio” Castillo III, whose death led to the passage of an amended law prohibiting all forms of hazing, including those under military training.
