Hazing victim ba? House probe sought on PMMA cadet’s death

By Billy Begas

Agusan del Norte Rep. Lawrence Fortun has filed a resolution on Monday seeking congressional probe on the death of Philippine Merchant Marine Academy Cadet 4th Class Jonash Bondoc under “questionable circumstances”

In House Resolution 1953, Fortun urged the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education to lead the conduct of investigation.

Fortun noted that the House of Representatives has oversight powers over all government agencies implementing the Anti-Hazing Law of 2018 (Republic Act 11053).

“The probe sought could result in the filing of administrative and criminal cases and introduction of appropriate legislations to prevent the recurrence of the same incidence of violence in the future,” Fortun said.

Bondoc was found dead in a restroom on the Alpha Company Barracks of the PMMA in the morning of July 6.

The autopsy report indicates that Bondoc sustained several injuries, contusions, abrasions and hematoma in the chest, abdomen, neck, head and extremities, and the intracerebral hemorrhage in the lobes of the brain.

“The horrible injuries in different parts of Jonash’s body points to a case of hazing perpetrated by not just one person and these directly contradict the statement of the purportedly lone culprit Cadet 3rd Class Jomel Gloria that he simply punched the victim in the chest,” Fortun pointed out.

He earlier questioned the “premature” declaration of the police that the case was closed “without conducting a thorough, detailed and exhaustive investigation.”

Fortun said the death of Bondoc was attended by suspicious circumstances requiring an in-depth and exhaustive investigation that should cover not only the crime but also the environment and systems that may have countenanced certain practices and traditions that led to its commission.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)