Cudia, dismissed for lying, got 99% in conduct

How could Cadet First Class Aldrin Jeff Cudia of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), who got an average grade of  98 percent (he got a grade of 100 percent six times), have lied about his tardiness which led to his dismissal?

Cudia’s grades in conduct are enumerated thus: Conduct I, 97 percent; Conduct II, 97 percent; Conduct III, 100 percent; Conduct IV, 100; Conduct V, 100; Conduct VI, 100; Conduct VII, 100; Conduct VIII, 99 percent; Conduct IX, 100 percent; Conduct X, 99; Conduct XI, 96.

Cudia was found by the Corps of Cadets’ honor committee to have lied when he was asked why he was late for the next class.

Cudia said he was late because the instructor in the previous class, Dr. Maria Monica Costales, dismissed her students late.

The honor committee said Cudia’s claim was a lie.

But Costales, who teaches statistics, backed up Cudia’s statement.

“I agree and consider that because Cadet Cudia is under my instruction to wait and the other cadets still have (sic) business with me, it is reasonable enough for him to say that ‘Our class was dismissed a bit late,’” Costales said in her affidavit.

So, how could the honor committee have found him lying when his instructor herself said he was telling the truth?
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The honor committee, composed of nine cadets, was not unanimous at first in deciding if Cudia was lying. The decision was 8-1, a “hung jury,” which would have acquitted him.

If one member of the committee gave a “not guilty” verdict, Cudia would have been acquitted.

But the committee, composed of fellow cadets who would be his potential rivals for the position of Armed Forces Chief of Staff or Navy flag-officer-in-command later (Cudia chose the Navy as his branch of service), pressured the cadet who voted “not guilty” into changing his vote.

First Class Cadet Dalton John Lagura told Cmdr. Junjie Tabuada, head of the academy’s naval warfare department, about the pressure.

Here’s Tabuada’s account of his conversation with Lagura:

“Lags (Lagura’s nickname), came here and he approached me and I let him sit down in the chair in front of my table. I asked him, ‘Cudia got it, eh … what happened.’ He replied, ‘My vote was really not guilty, sir.’ And I asked him, ‘Oh, why was the verdict guilty when I know that if one voted not guilty, the concerned cadet would be acquitted?’ ‘They had me chambered, sir, they had me justify my not guilty vote, so I was pressured into changing my decision, sir.’ So I told him (Lagura), ‘What a waste, he’s so intelligent and well-behaved,’ and he replied, ‘Yes, sir.’”

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Despite constant criticisms from this corner and becoming the laughingstock of her fellow lawyers, Parañaque Regional Trial Court Judge Noemi Balitaan continues to hear the case against Dr. Elizabeth de Guia-Godino.

Godino was charged by her husband with car theft, which is an impossible crime because the car is conjugal property.

I’m almost tempted to ask, “how much?”, but I’d rather not.