2 military officers to head PMA in acting capacity

In his first press conference as AFP chief in Camp Aguinaldo, Clement said Rear Admiral Allan Cusi will be appointed as acting PMA Superintendent next week while Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner will be appointed as acting Corps of Cadets Commandant. (Photo: Armed Forces of the Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA — Newly-appointed Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff, Lt. Gen. Noel Clement on Thursday said two military officers will head the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in acting capacity.

In his first press conference as AFP chief in Camp Aguinaldo, Clement said Rear Admiral Allan Cusi will be appointed as acting PMA Superintendent next week while Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner will be appointed as acting Corps of Cadets Commandant.

“As far as the updates on the current issue of the PMA is concerned, first and foremost let me announce that we will be, this afternoon, we will be installing Brig. Gen. Romeo Brawner as the acting commandant of (the Corps of) Cadets of the PMA and next week, we will be installing Rear Admiral Allan Cusi as the acting superintendent of PMA,” Clement said.

Cusi will replace Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista while Brawner is taking over the post of Brig. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro, who both resigned in the wake of the maltreatment incident that led to the death of Cadet Fourth Class Darwin Dormitorio last Sept. 18 and hospitalization of three other cadets early this week.

“The focus here actually is to make sure that we will be able to continue and make sure that whatever systems and policies that has to be revised will actually be reviewed,” he further stressed.

When asked on whether there are new cases of maltreatment, Clement declined to comment on the matter for now.

“I will not want to deal on specific numbers of as of this time but ‘yung nako-confirm lang natin is yung (so far, what we have confirmed are) the three cadets right now in V. Luna (now the AFP Medical Center), including the one in St. Luke’s (Medical Center) in Global City (Taguig) that have been initially diagnosed as maltreatment cases,” he added.

All of these three cadets are now in stable condition.

Clement also said inspections of all PMA fourth class cadets for possible maltreatment injuries are now ongoing upon orders from Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.

“But let me just emphasize that the incident of Cadet Dormitorio and the three cadets is not an institutional incident, it is not a Cadet Corps wide incident that involves all our fourth class members, we are looking at this an isolated incident and hopefully we can address possible future violations of policies in as far as maltreatment is concerned,” the AFP chief added.