When Cadet Aldrin Jeff Cudia of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) came to me last week, I advised him not to seek reinstatement into the military as he had become an outcast to his peers.
I remember telling him that if he got reinstated one way or another, “Duduraan lang ang mukha mo (They would spit in your face),” to which he agreed.
I meant that literally and figuratively.
Rightly or wrongly, that’s how the PMA Corps of Cadets value the honor code.
Although I think Cudia is innocent of the offense imputed to him (lying), I also said it was useless for him to stand his ground against the system since he’s alone.
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But now I found out that Cudia’s crusade to fight the system and make media his refuge is not motivated by principle alone.
Someone or some group must be prodding him to destroy the very institution that nurtured him for four years.
I’ll tell you why.
I learned that President Noy, who was sympathetic to Cudia, met with him and his family in Malacañang.
The President offered to give him his diploma and scholarships for his siblings who are still studying as long as he kept quiet, and for his family to stop lambasting the PMA in public.
I got the reliable information from a Palace insider.
The President’s meetings with the Cudias took place one after the other: First, with Cadet Cudia himself and later with his family.
Now, why do the Cudias still take potshots at the PMA despite the President’s wonderful offer?
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Why do I think there’s an individual or group of individuals that’s behind the Cudias attacking the PMA?
I learned that on the day that Cadet Aldrin was to have graduated and marched on stage, the Cudias were billeted in two rooms in a five-star hotel in Baguio City.
The Cudias are not rich to afford those luxurious rooms: Aldrin’s father is a resigned member of the Philippine Navy’s elite SWAG (Seals) team, and his mother is an enlisted woman in the Navy.
While the Cudias were staying at the luxury hotel, the parents of his classmates either stayed in the PMA campus or in cheap lodging houses.
Now, who paid for the Cudias’ stay in the luxury hotel?
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A congressman in an island province in the Visayas has won several jackpots in different casinos in Metro Manila.
His latest casino windfall, where he bet a maximum of P240, was P600,000.
Whenever he wins the jackpot, the congressman makes his aide claim the prize.
But that’s not the issue.
What is at issue is why a government official, a member of the House of Representatives no less, is allowed to play in the casinos.
Casinos are off-limits to government officials and employees.
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From time to time, this corner will be exposing government officials and employees—especially those from the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue—who frequent the casinos.
Readers can be assured of the reliability of my sources.