3 successive honor cases filed vs Cudia: ‘Not guilty’ in first two, rigged ‘guilty’ in 3rd
3 successive honor cases filed vs Cudia:
‘Not guilty’ in first two, rigged ‘guilty’ in 3rd
As an obligation to truth, I have to write these pieces of truth I
gathered from persons other than 1st Class Cadet Aldrin Jeff P.
Cudia.
I was thinking of
not telling this to the public because I feared that the more the barbarians will
punish Cadet Cudia if I did thinking that it was him who revealed this to me.
At that time,
however, I was hopeful that the honor committee will become transparent and
submit to the public scrutiny their records of deliberations and voting on
three honor cases filed against Cudia.
Because the time is drawing to a close for the 10 March 2014 final
announcement as to who will be allowed to march to the stage on 16 March 2014 and
get diplomas and commissions from President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and time
is running out, I am now writing this to let the decision-makers know what
really happened before Cudia was found “guilty” by a vote that was rigged
(dagdag-bawas) from 8 “guilty” and 1 “not guilty” to 9 “guilty” to 0 “not
guilty.”
In other words, there is now a clear-and-present danger that Cudia
will be punished in an exceedingly disgusting manner without due respect to the
taxpayers who finance the schooling of all cadets in the PMA where it costs at
least P2.5 million to spend for one cadet in four years.
I understand every PMAer values so dear the secrecy of the Honor
Code proceedings undertaken by its Honor Committee as almost the equivalent of his
or her life. Every alumnus or alumna of West
Point also does the same; the Code of the PMA cadets was copied from that of
the West Point.
In fact, there was one reel story propounded by an FB friend Jose “Joe”
Bautista about a 3-star general from West Point who chose to be silent about
his daughter’s rape inside the academy.
But there is no other defense left if only to serve as a last-ditch
effort to save the truth from being trampled upon but to unleash the power of
truth by itself.
To me, truth is the universal language of change, liberty and
democracy.
For generations, it has always been maintained: “Truth shall set
you free.”
It is also this truth that will set Cudia free.
Having said that, let us now go to the truth that led to the present
Honor Committee Scandal of 2014.
In the last week of September
2013, somebody filed a report for cheating against Cudia, where he was accused
of collecting Naval Science examination papers of his classmates during their
examinations as ordered to him by superiors.
He had no other choice but to obey.
Cudia was defended by classmates and he was given a “Not Guilty” verdict
in October.
Immediately thereafter, another honor report violation was filed
against Cudia. This time it was the
Honor Committee Chairman himself who filed the same in November 2013. The HonCom chair accused Cudia of “cheating
and conniving” by giving solutions to his Navy classmates who, except for
Cudia, all took the retake of the examination because they all failed in Navy
Science 432. One of those who re-took
the exam was the HonCom chairman. Aldrin
perfected all the exams of the subject. Following the instructor’s wishes, Cudia
announced to his Navy classmates how to get the GIVEN of the exam problems and
what scale should be used. Then one of
his classmates asked how to get the GIVEN and Cudia answered to the extent of
giving the GIVEN and what should be used. The HonCom chairman asked a clarification and
benefited from Cudia. After that
incident, the HonCom chair himself filed an Honor violation report against Cudia
and another classmate. The instructor
defended Cudia. When he came back in January 2014, Cudia was handed a “not
guilty” verdict.
On 7 January 2014, Maj. Dennis Hindang, the tactical officer of
Cudia at “A” coy, filed the third honor violation report.
Hindang accused Cudia of “perverting the truth” in his appeal from
a delinquency report filed on 19 November 2013 by professor Juanita Berong,
where she said: “Late for two (2) minutes
in his Eng 412 class o/a 14 1500H – 1600H Nov 2013.” Basing his logic on the Delinquency Report of
Berong that Cudia was declared by Berong to have been late for two minutes for
the 1500H class,Cudia stated that his class in the prior period also ended at
1500H.
The contention of Maj. Hindang was that Cudia lied in stating that
the prior class period scheduled for 1330H up to 1500H ended at 1500H when,
according to Hindang, the 4th period class was dismissed by professor
Costales at 1455H or five minutes before 1500H, which is 3:00 p.m. in layman’s
time expression.
On 19 December 2013 Hindang issued Cudia a punishment of 11
demerits and 13 touring hours due to the cadet’s explanation to Berong’s
delinquency report. Cudia’s explanation
was this: “Our class was dismissed a (little) bit late and I came directly
from 4th period class…..etc”.
The other classmates of Cudia who were also late were punished
only with 8 demerits and 8 touring hours and the punishment was handed to them
only in January of 2014 while Cudia’s punishment was handed much earlier on 19
December 2013.
Anyway, after receiving the 7 January 2014 charge filed by Maj.
Hindang, Cudia asked the HonCom chairman what their tactical officer meant of the
charge. The chairman told Cudia that
Hindang based the charges on conversations with professors and classmates and
on Cudia’s written request for reconsideration from the 11 demerits and 13
touring hours.
Cudia then asked for an extension of time to answer the charge
because Dr. Costales was on vacation. On 13 January 2014, Dr. Costales sent a text
message and stated that she thought all the while that Major Hindang was asking
her about the time of dismissal in December 2013 and that she answered she
presumed the cadets finished early because it was a group work.
To the honor violation case filed by Major Hindang, this was what
Aldrin answered:
“Sir,
“We had an LE (long examination) that day (14
November 2013) in OR432 class. When the first bell rang (1455), I stood up,
reviewed my paper and submitted it to my instructor, Ms. Costales. After which,
I and Cadet 1cl Arcangel asked for some query with regard to the deductions of
our previous LE. Our instructor gladly answered our question. She then told me
that she will give the copy of our section grade, so I waited at the hallway
outside the ACAD5 office, and then she came out of the room and gave me a copy
of the grades. Cadet Arcangel, Cadet Narciso and I immediately went to our 5th
period Class which is ENG412.”
On 21 January 2014, after having already served 9 hours of the 13
hours of touring, the “guilty” verdict was handed out by the Honor Committee.
After learning thereof, Cudia went to a member of the Honor
Committee who he knew the most and he was told that the initial voting was 8-1,
which meant 8 members voted Cudia was “guilty” and 1 voted “not guilty.” Because the committee cannot accept the
vote, it resorted to “chambering” where the lone dissenter was compelled to
change vote. Then the second round of
voting was 9-0, which meant 9 voted “guilty” while none voted “not guilty.”
One vote of “not guilty” is sufficient to acquit because the procedure
requires unanimous vote of 9-0 by the honor committee members of nine cadets.
Cudia filed his appeal to the honor committee, submitting as new evidence the certification of professor Costales standing by that he did not lie. The committee KILLED THE APPEAL ON ARRIVAL, WITHOUT GIVING IT A CHANCE TO BE DISCUSSED.
At this time when almost no more is left for Cudia to be able to be
allowed to graduate, this is no longer an issue of whether Cudia lied.
It is now an issue of whether it was right to change the 8-1 vote.
This is the truth.
If they go to the side of justice, the PMA will never get wrong.
Instead, it will strengthen and straighten out the Honor Code proceedings.
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