Aquino must overhaul PMA honor code system – CHR chief

Former Philippine Military Academy Cadet 1st Class Jeff Aldrin Cudia is greeted by and given advice by Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chairperson Loretta Ann “Etta” Rosales. LYN RILLON/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said Thursday the Aquino administration must “take action and initiate a total overhaul” of the honor system of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

“It is incumbent upon the executive to take action and to initiate at the very least, a total overhaul of the honor code system,” CHR chairman Loretta Ann Rosales said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer 990AM.

Rosales issued the statement after the CHR found out that dismissed Cadet Jeff Aldrin Cudia was not guilty of lying, and should be granted his diploma.

She said there are practices in the PMA that violates human rights law and the Constitution.

“The honor code could not be above the Constitution,” she said. She added Cudia was denied of due process as stated in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.

She added that Cudia was also denied education and access to justice.

According to her, the PMA honor committee responsible for the dismissal of Cudia should be charged with criminal liability.

“Everybody is equal under the law and before the law in the same manner that everybody deserves the same kind of protection before the law,” she said.

According to her, those who are criminally liable should be charged because they violated human rights law.

She added that the PMA would be violating Cudia’s human rights should it refuse to rectify the grievous harm done by the honor committee against the dismissed cadet.

The human rights chair demanded to the PMA and the government, “Give the guy what is due him. Give him his diploma.  What happened to him was not his fault,” she said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the CHR released its findings and recommendations in its 30-page “Final Report on Cadet Cudia.

CHR said, “The PMA leadership, by failing to exercise command responsibility, rendered itself complicit in this mockery of justice.”

Cudia, who was running for honors, was dismissed from the country’s premiere military school on February 10, for allegedly lying to justify his being late in class. Lying is considered a major violation of the academy’s honor code.

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