Cadet Cudia a victim of intellectual hazing?

I’ve been following the case of Cadet First Class Aldrin Jeff Cudia who was expelled by his own peers in the honor committee of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) for “dishonesty”—giving as reason for his getting to class late a request by the teacher of a preceding class for him to stay awhile.

PMA authorities affirmed the committee’s decision, as if totally forgetting all of Cudia’s good performance and record during the four years he spent in the PMA—which put him atop his class (he was candidate for salutatorian)—because he lied.

The teacher (operational research instructor Monica Costales) involved has reportedly issued an affidavit that she herself had asked Cudia to stay behind for a while. If this is true, this means Cudia did not lie at all.

Let’s look at it from another angle: If Cudia did lie, was his lying extremely disastrous? Did it betray the PMA as an institution, such that he exposed the organization or our country to a grave threat of danger and thus, rightly deserved the maximum penalty of expulsion?

I’ve learned from our moral theology study that a single action does not constitute the total reality of a person. A single infraction of the law, for example, does not mean that the person is consistently a law violator.

Cudia’s excellent performance in academics would guarantee that he was serious with his studies, and an achiever at that, in the years he was in the academy. His pattern of behavior has been so positive, hence he is more of an asset than a liability to the organization or to our country.

What bothers is that Cudia, a former accountancy scholar at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, was reportedly an inquisitive, vocal and assertive cadet, and thus exhibited an independent and principled character, which is not unusual of students from a university known for student activism.

Looking at it another way, could Cudia’s intelligence, independent character and resolute attitude have made him an intellectual threat to his peers, that is why he had to be expelled at all costs?

Was Cudia a victim of intellectual hazing? Just asking.

—ROMY O. PONTE,

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