Another case of militics

One thing I admire about President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III is his being a neutral party to the so-called militics, or the culture of military politics in our country. As the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), President Aquino has stayed out of the militics – successfully so far.

This culture of militics has obviously become so pervasive at the AFP, although an acquired thing. From all indications, the culture of militics starts when they enter as young cadets in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). The state-supported military school is the premier institution that trains future generals of the AFP.

From militics, a number of ex-military men eventually enter formal politics and become full-fledged politicians.

Incidentally, there has been a lot of not so subtle militics jockeying among the contenders in the military hierarchy. The contest among them is to become the successor of outgoing AFP chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista who is due to retire on July 20 this year.

To his credit, President Aquino is able to stay out of militics because he has shunned being adopted as honorary member of any PMA class. His four sisters though are all adopted members of PMA Class 1980.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon called militics is being played among our men in uniform when they are supposed to adhere closely to the PMA ideals of “courage, integrity and loyalty.” Instead, what they imbibe at the PMA from day one is the culture of militics they have to deal with in order to survive their four-year rigorous training and eventually graduate.

This is obviously what was happening in the case of PMA cadet Aldrin Jeff Cudia. He was supposed to graduate with honors. But because of alleged violations of PMA “Honor Code,” Cudia failed to join the graduation of Class 2014 “Siklab-Diwa” last Sunday.

Even if Cudia could be later acquitted, he still would not be able to graduate. From PMA records, Cudia has yet to finish some of his school requirements, supposedly his on-the-job training before he can be commissioned into the AFP after graduation.

His fate was in the hands of President Aquino, who as Commander-in-chief has the final word on the case. Rather than be drawn into militics, P-Noy did the right thing to leave such institutional issues resolve itself from within, without outside interference.

Cudia’s woes with militics started with his Siklab Diwa classmates who composed the nine-man “Honor Committee” that decided on his case. The violation was committed when Cudia supposedly lied about the reason why he was two minutes late for a class. Cudia appealed the punishment, leading to the Honor Committee’s review of the case.

Other than the alleged lying, PMA later claimed Cudia committed other violations of the “Honor Code” in the past. If he is a recidivist, why was he allowed to go on to the next level of his stay at the PMA?

No wonder, we have seen some PMAers accused of much worse offenses of lying, stealing, and cheating, and a number were convicted.

Being strangers to the culture at the PMA, we find it really difficult to understand them. Why is the future of their “mistah” to be sacrificed for supposed “lying” on the reason of two-minute tardiness? The PMA argued if one could lie about small things, a future officer could lie on bigger matters.

Aren’t these PMA cadets being trained to lie if caught by the enemies and interrogated? Aren’t they also taught to lie in the conduct of psychological warfare? That is just stretching the issue.

Since we are on the subject of lying, someone among PMAers in the Philippine National Police (PNP) is obviously weaving a tale out of the supposed “promotion” of the former Task Force (TF) Tugis head Sr. Supt. Conrad Capa. PNP director-general Alan Purisima announced last week the “promotion” of Capa as the new Central Visayas deputy regional director for operations (DRDO) based in Cebu.

Purisima belongs to PMA Class 1981 while Capa is from PMA Class 1985. They are among the last batches of PMAers in the PNP which no longer accepts PMA graduates into its officer corps under the PNP Law.

Instead of being elated about his supposed “promotion,” a very frustrated Capa denounced his relief as TF Tugis chief. He was removed less than a week after TF Tugis succeeded in capturing real estate businessman Delfin Lee, one of the five most wanted fugitives in the country. Capa became the TF Tugis head only six months ago.

Purisima said Capa is being rewarded for a job well done and that he is really anyway due for promotion to chief superintendent (one-star general). But isn’t it logical that if the head is successful in the mission of a task force, you would want to keep the momentum to net the rest of the four other most wanted fugitives?

Although he initially questioned publicly his relief and ”promotion,” Capa eventually reported to his new post in Cebu, saying he is a professional officer who follows normal movements in an organization such as the PNP.

Capa’s relief as head of TF Tugis came after Vice President Jejomar Binay denounced alleged attempts by certain “influential” people who called up the PNP chief to mediate for Lee. Capa was suspected to have tipped off the Vice President who as head of Pag-Ibig has been pursuing the syndicated estafa cases against Lee.

The Vice President also raised a howl when he found out Lee’s lawyers got hold of a PNP letter which they now are using in court to justify the release of their client. In that letter, Lee was supposedly being “de-listed” from the PNP’s most wanted list.

Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II, as immediate supervisor of the PNP, immediately ordered an investigation into Lee’s alleged de-listing. The DILG secretary himself has been dragged into Lee’s case. A daughter of Lee served as one of the bridesmaids of Roxas’ wedding.

Incidentally, Vice President Binay is one of the honorary members of PMA Class 1988. DILG Secretary Roxas, on the other hand, is honorary member of PMA Class 1984. Is this another case of militics?