PMA cadet Darwin Dormitorio laid to rest in Cagayan de Oro

His family and friends gathered in his burial service at the Cagayan de Oro Gardens in Barangay Lumbia. (File photo: Darwin Dormitorio/Facebook)

Twenty-year-old Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadet Darwin Dormitorio, who died due to hazing allegedly, has been laid to rest on Wednesday, September 25.

His family and friends gathered in his burial service at the Cagayan de Oro Gardens in Barangay Lumbia.

He was given full military honors, including a 21-gun salute.

The wife of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Jean Año, was also at the burial, where she said her husband told her that there will be no whitewash in the investigation on Dormitorio’s death.

The plebe died on September 18, after complaining of stomach pain and vomiting. An initial report said Dormitorio died of cardiac arrest secondary to internal bleeding.

His death prompted the resignation of Lieutenant General Ronnie Evangelista as PMA head and Brigadier General Bartolome Bacarro as commandant of cadets.

“All the reports for administrative and criminal cases are now finished, prosecution procedures have commenced. The last act that this great military institution demands is for the leadership to take responsibility over what happened,” Evangelista earlier said.

“In the military tradition of command responsibility, it is now the proper time for me, as the head of the institution, along with the Commandant of Cadets, to relinquish our respective positions,” he added.

Malacañang welcomed Evangelista’s resignation, saying it was a “right step” towards upholding the PMA’s integrity as the country’s premier military institution. It also assured Dormitorio’s family that justice will be delivered.

While it offered its condolences, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), on the other hand, called on the “total elimination” of hazing in all schools and non-school-based organizations, including military and army trainings.

“We must end the culture of violence especially among the ranks of our future leaders in the military sector and disavow in unequivocal terms the use of physical, mental and psychological violence in their training activities,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said in a statement also on Wednesday.