Thing to Ponder: No Honor in Injustice By Virgilio S. Perdigon Jr. I can stay clear of the Cudia affair in the PMA. However, the taxes I pay entitle me to an opinion. The PMA cannot claim to have its own Honor System. It is sustained inarguably by the taxes of the people. That institution should institute an honor system that serves the people. To serve the people, that honor system should reflect the people’s notion of justice. What is justice? It is rewarding a good act, or penalizing an offense commensurately. When the penalty is so severe for a petty offense, there is no justice. PMA can claim that a slight offense in the larger society is gargantuan when committed inside its halls. How then will PMA reckon with the graft committed by generals in the procurement of combat boots? How will PMA explain the involvement of generals in the kidnappings perpetrated by the Abu Sayyaf? Since no general was ever punished, does PMA allow us to conclude that those generals committed a milder offense than being late for 2 minutes in a class, or changing a cadet’s reason for such tardiness? Yes, a cadet being 2 minutes late in a PMA class commits a petty offense while a President being 1 hour late for a PMA graduation commits a gross offense. A cadet changing his reason for being late commits no worse offense than a committee changing the records of its votes from 8-1 to 9-0. There is no proportion here. Hence, there is no justice. Consequently, there is no honor either. There is no such thing as unjust honor. It is a contradiction in terms. Worse, it is a hypocrisy. Perhaps, there are no Christians in the PMA. If there are, then the faultless among them should cast the first stone. Before PMA’ers making loud claims about their so-called honor system, they should first chastise the erring military officials who are their fellow alumni. The offense of those alumni hurts the Filipino people more than Cudia’s tardiness or changing of reason for such tardiness. The absurdity of the Cudia affair in the PMA is, but another reflection of the absurdities long flaunted in Philippine governance whose victim is the long suffering Filipino people. - See more at: bicoltoday/2014/03/21/no-honor-in-injustice/?fb_action_ids=10203104684356450&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map#sthash.J4Ng4o4d.dpuf
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:30:34 +0000
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