UPDATE: 2 top PMA officials resign over ‘maltreatment’ of cadets
Credit to Author: DEMPSEY REYES| Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 05:04:49 +0000
LT. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista, the superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), resigned on Tuesday over allegations of “maltreatment” on some cadets, including the death of one from hazing.
In a press conference, Evangelista announced that he tendered his resignation to Gen. Benjamin Madrigal, outgoing chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Evangelista said Brig. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro, commandant of the military’s cadet corps, also resigned from his post.
“It is now the proper time for me as the head of the institution together with the Commandant of cadets to relinquish our respective positions,” Evangelista said.
He said he was not leaving his post “in the midst of crisis” but that the Filipino people would have to be shown “what command responsibility should be.”
Evangelista and Bacarro’s resignations came a day after two more cadets were admitted to the hospital after they were subjected to hazing rites.
READ: 2 other PMA hazing victims in hospital
Before this, Cadet 4th Class Darwin Dormitorio became the latest hazing fatality, reuslting in he dismissal of two academy officials who were identified as having the ranks of major and captain.
Evangelista said, however, that Dormitorio’s case was up to proper authorities.
“All that is right, legal and moral must be learned, experienced and inculcated in every lesson, activity, interaction and relation in every cadet’s four-year journey at the PMA,” Evangelista said.
Bacarro clarified that the resignations did not mean an admission of lapses on their parts.
“We did everything we can and even with that, [for] the principle of command responsibility, we volunteered [to resign],” he told reporters in a phone interview.
Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman, confirmed that Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr. has accepted the resignations of Evangelista and Bacarro.