News and other things

Since most of my upperclassmen are now in Manila for the Independence Day parade, I had the rare opportunity of being able to watch news on the TV. Of course, knowing the kind of atmosphere in the government now is not something to be happy about, compounded by alleged destabilization plots, I kind of enjoyed knowing the things that are happening outside my realm. Being able to know these things gives me that guidance to do more of my duty here as a cadet rather than be mediocre and waste the people's money.... Well thoughts and more thoughts.

On other matters, I am expressing my disgust over one article that is in the latest issue of the Corps Magazine. I really believe that media is an important element of society. I also believe that even in the military when obedience and protocol is the way of life, the freedom of expression should be cultivated but in proper avenues that will not destroy the very foundation of the organization. Inasmuch as I brutally react to ills of the organization that I am a part of in the way I write my opinions, I also understand that first and foremost I must do my role as part of this organization learning from both the positive and negative so that as my influence becomes greater and my responsibility becomes more tremendous, I will be guided by this things; doing the positive and putting an end to the negative. My role now is to learn how it is to lead positively, whatever my opinion is, it is my attempt to express myself and be true, but it does not in anyway affect my performance of the soldier of the land. With this in consideration, I daresay that even in the military institution, the use of the pen is of much responsibility as that of leadership as a whole.

The article I am complaining about was about the position of an upperclass over a recent maltreat case here in the academy. The writer who was the upperclass' company mate somehow used the respectable Corps Magazine as his vehicle to defend the upperclass which I think is now in the process of being discharged. That is the first thing that disgust me. It's a cheap way of defending oneself over a very controversial case. This is also not to discount the fact that the magazine is to be distributed even to civilians who do not have any idea on the prevailing doctrine of PMA regarding maltreatment. And of course, the obvious, what does the people have to do with this case? Secondly, it is assumed on that write-up, that the upperclass was telling the truth and the plebe was definitely a liar on the premise that the upperclass had years of experience living under the umbrella of the Honor Code as a cadet, while the plebe was a cadet only for two weeks, which makes his word weak when it comes to truthfulness. The article is simply implying that those who go to the Philippine Military Academy are not honorable and that they learn to be honorable only in PMA which is very much false. He disregards the at least 17 years of value formation that the plebe has gone through as a civilian which is very much unfair. And finally, the article alone is full of bias and hatred which is not supposed to be a character of someone who is involved in responsible journalism. My point is this, I do not know the circumstances behind that controversial case nor do I care to find out. I pity the upperclass who is on his way out because of such case. But, whatever the outcome of that case maybe, it is bad, as in very bad, practice to use a respectable publication as a tool to expose seemingly fallacious arguments that I think will even degrade the quality of opinion the Corps magazine is expected of. It is not for any cadet to make the matter more controversial because the case is still under investigation. I do not side with any of the parties involved and I abhor maltreatment in any way, but the point is that when we try to use means that are improper to promote our interests our opinions, this becomes a tragedy and something that is not expected of a cadet who is paid by taxpayers more than five hundred thousand pesos a year. I'm talking to the opinion editor about this, I just can't stand that the publication I am writing for can publish a kind of article like that.

And finally my gripes are over. If you want to read the article I am referring to just find the latest Corps Magazine, I am not glorifying that article by placing a copy in my website....