PNPA chief offers to quit over beating
Phiippine National Police Academy director Chief Supt. Joseph Adnol has offered to resign following the beating incident after the PNPA graduation ceremonies last week.
PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa, however, yesterday refused to accept the resignation.
Adnol claimed he was not aware of the academy’s practice of “bawian” or payback, thus he failed to prepare measures to prevent it. The PNPA supposedly has a tradition of underclassmen dunking new graduates in a pool in return for hardships suffered at the hands of the senior officers in their first year.
Instead of a dunking, this year’s graduates were reportedly hit on the head with paddles by members of the class which includes Dela Rosa’s son Rock.
Dela Rosa claimed neither
From Page 1 the leadership nor the PNPA Alumni Association tolerated the tradition.
The Silang police station in Cavite has identified nine cadets of the PNPA involved in the melee that resulted in serious injuries to seven graduating students allegedly beaten up by the suspects an hour after graduation rites last Wednesday.
The suspects, all incoming fourth year PNPA second class cadets, were identified as Donald Ramirez Kissing, Jem Camcam Peralta, Clint Baguidodol, Paul Christopher de Guzman Macalalad, Loreto Aquino Tuliao Jr. and four others identified only through their surnames as Delos Santos, Calamba, Coplat and Amanon.
The victims, all members of the PNPA graduating Maragtas Class 2018, were identified as Inspectors Ylam Lambenecio, Arjay Divino, Mark Kevin Villares, Floyd Traquena, Jan Paul Dalapus and Arjay Cuasay, who placed ninth among the top 10 graduates of the 106-strong PNPA Maragtas Class of 2018.
Jail Inspector Cuasay received the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology Kampilan Award during the 39th commencement exercises held on March 21.
The Silang police investigators said victims Lambenecio and Divino reported to the police station and executed their affidavits against the suspects while their classmates Villares, Traquena, Dalapus and Cuasay filed separate affidavits that they are not interested in filing a case.
The Silang PNP office said a criminal case was scheduled to be filed at their office yesterday while pre-charge investigation would also be filed against 20 cadets of the PNPA Class 2019.
As this developed, PNP chief Dela Rosa said the PNPA graduates’ tradition of bawian should be stopped since it promotes a cycle of violence.
Dela Rosa said he is coordinating with Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) president Ricardo de Leon to ensure that the practice will not happen again.
The PPSC, an attached agency of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), supervises the PNPA.
Dela Rosa said that at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), graduates are brought to the sundial, an area where there is a mini-pool where the graduates are dunked by their underclassmen.
“But before that, the members of the immediate underclassmen would tickle you until you have difficulty breathing. That tradition, the so-called cariño militar, that’s what we call it,” Dela Rosa explained.
PNPA, overdid the of were objects He the heads hit said graduates the and it with of because ats cadets some some hard the suffered noses. severely Others injured. broken were tradition “That kind is not of good. of violence,” It’s sad to Dela say, Rosa it promotes told reporters a cycle yesterday during a press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
“Again, I would like to make this clear, I am not a part of the PNPA, it is not under me. It is directly under the PPSC under General De Leon. So my course of action was I talked to him, and also to PNPA director… Adnol, that this practice should be stopped, this tradition should be stopped dahil hindi maganda (because it’s not good),” Dela Rosa said.
The victims were allegedly beaten up by at least 30 underclassmen inside their barracks.
Police probers said Dela Rosa’s only son Rock, an incoming PNPA second year cadet, was not part of the incident.
In a statement to the Silang Police, the six victims said at around 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., they returned to their barracks at LAKAN Dormitory 3, where they were met by some members of the cadet corps supposedly waiting to congratulate them and to perform the lifting and dunking, which is a tradition for new academy graduates.
“While the lifting and dunking of the six new graduates were ongoing, suddenly the suspects together with other unidentified members of the cadet corps who were wearing bonnets/masks, holding pieces of hard objects, empty plastic container, shirt containing hard object, rattan batons and other hard objects rushed in and in a frenzied manner, mobbed and attacked the six new graduates,” the victims told the police.
The victims did not say how the commotion was stopped.
They suffered bruises, black-eyes, burned skin and lacerated wounds in different parts of their bodies.
Police said the victims were brought to the PNPA Medical Dispensary for treatment. The report did not identify the people who assisted the victims.
De Leon said of the 34 cadets, 13 were positively identified to have directly beaten the six cadets, while others merely dumped water on the graduates.
All the cadets involved have been isolated from the rest of the batch and charges would be filed against them.
Dela Rosa said some PNPA alumni who are now PNP officers confirmed the bawian tradition but claimed it has long been stopped, thus they were surprised to hear about the beating. Dela Rosa said he has talked to the victims’ parents.
larly of the four severely injured, to let PNPA management handle the problem.
The PNP chief also said he would wait for the result of the investigation.