BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy on Sunday, March 16, defended its honor system as Class 2014 graduated amid controversies surrounding the Honor Code.
Major General Oscar Lopez, PMA superintendent, told graduating class Siklab Diwa that “honor is an essential part of happiness,” and that the academy’s rigid honor system and its honor code “are instruments towards this goal.”
As of posting, each graduate was getting his diploma. President Benigno Aquino III is expected to deliver a speech in a few minutes.
The class is graduating without one member, cadet Jeff Cudia who was expelled by the PMA Honor Committee, composed entirely of PMA cadets, for lying in his explanation of why he had come late in one class last year. Cudia has appealed the decision, accusing committee members of ganging up on him.
The Cudia case exploded in social media, prompting a reinvestigation that eventually upheld the committee’s decision.
In a last-ditch effort to make him graduate, Cudia and his family sought a meeting with President Benigno Aquino III and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Saturday, March 15, at The Mansion, the presidential residence in the summer capital.
Aquino could only promise Cudia yet another reinvestigation to be handled this time by Armed Forces chief of staff General Emmanuel Bautista. – Rappler.com
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