June 17, 2005 · Posted in: 2004 Electoral Fraud, Gloriagate, In the News
“All right, Ma’am?”
THIS letter from Jose del Pilar found its way to our email box today. We thought it interesting to share with readers of our blog.
ALL RIGHT MA’AM?
There was a cadet in the Philippine Military Academy. One of his unforgettable moments was when he faced the Battalion Board. He was asked by the Head of the Board “Did you haze Cadet M———–?”
“Yes, sir!” was his short but firm reply. He had no other thoughts as to an alternative response. He did it and he had to tell the truth. By the Academy’s Honor Code, a cadet does not lie, cheat, steal nor tolerate those who do. He never thought of keeping quiet and silent or even think of letting the Board prove it. He knows what will happen next, and he accepted it. He was discharged from the Academy and had to “take life.”
That was so many years ago. Since then, he has not changed his way of doing things, and although he had many difficulties, he tried to keep the values and discipline he learned from the Academy.Life in the Academy revolved around strict adherence to the Honor Code. A cadet must not only know the code but to practice and make it a way of life. It is this training that brings out the best in the cadets to become successful officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Then, and up to now, the Honor Code is still clear in his mind:
- A cadet does not lie. In his dealing with others, a cadet tells the truth, regardless of the consequences. He does not quibble. He does not make evasive statements.
- A cadet does not cheat. A cadet does not defraud others nor does he take undue advantage of them.
- A cadet does not steal. A cadet does not take any personal property of another without the latter’s consent. He does not keep for himself anything that he finds which does not belong to him.
- A cadet does not tolerate any violation of the Code. A cadet is bound to report any breach of the Code that comes to his attention. He does not countenance by inaction honor violations; if he does, he becomes party to such a violation and he himself is as guilty as the violator.
These values and discipline have given him happiness in his life, many successes and limited failures throughout.
One of the best things that happened to him later was when his classmates who graduated from the Academy adopted him as one of their own, with the approval of the Board of the PMA Alumni Association. On many occasions, he joined his classmates and other PMA classes in the Long Gray Line during alumni parades.
Today, he sees his President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines facing her “own Battalion Board,” the citizens of the Republic of the Philippines. They are asking “Are you the lady on the tape?” No answer. Only silence. And that question has been asked for more than a week, repeatedly.
He would not think of this situation as a problem if she was a civilian through and through. But she was adopted as a member of the PMA Class of 1978. Although she had not been a cadet in the Academy, her being a member of a PMA Class brings a responsibility and corresponding accountability to her, the Class and the Association to observe and uphold the values and discipline of the entire membership.
One of the key PMA traditions applicable in this case is the challenge that should be posed to her: “All right, Ma’am?”
There were several cases of cadets, some of them already graduating, who were challenged after coming from trips outside the Academy. They answered “Yes” even though they know they violated the rules applicable outside the Academy. They were found out and they were discharged, sometimes days before graduation.
Now, she must be challenged, not just by her Class of 1978 but the PMA Alumni Association itself. “All right, Ma’am?” For a President must preserve the integrity of the highest position in the land. She should tell the truth. Yes or No. No quibbling, no evading. No silence. Only the truth. She must be responsible for her action as a true President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Otherwise, the least that the PMA Alumni Association can do is to remove her name from the rolls of the Association. (The Association has investigated, and is still investigating, graduate alumni for acts of graft and corruption, and had dropped those found guilty from the rolls.)
At best, the Association can do what a Battalion Board is supposed to do.
17 Responses to “All right, Ma’am?”
lawspeak_007
June 17th, 2005 at 4:57 pm
Res Ipsa Loquitor.
“All Right, Ma’am ? ” should be a buzz word not only in Congress but as well as in Malacanang.
kuntil_butil
June 17th, 2005 at 6:17 pm
I remember during the Senate hearing on the Military Operations and Usage of Intelligence Fund, Angelo Reyes, DND secretary then (or AFP chief, sorry I can’t recall) is being grilled in the Senate. Sen Lacson, has the floor that time and asking Reyes about the authorization and funding of Corpuz’ operation (with the help of Mawanay & Rosebud) against him. Before Sen Lacson formally ended his queries to Reyes, he uttered the question – “(Are you) All right, Sir?”, challenging Reyes honor that time. Angelo Reyes did not response. The supposedly “Yes, Sir” response was not heard from Angelo Reyes. He just answered “I’am under Oath”
Then there was a debate among PMA alumni,…others opined that it is not proper to ask such question to Angie in Senate hearing. While others believed that such “(Are you) All right, Sir?” question of honor has no restrictions and Angie should have answered “Yes Sir!” if he really tell the truth during that hearing.
jay cynikho
June 17th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
I was a visitor to the academy during the time of Gen Marcos Soliman, when Nap Angeles was Baron, and JMCDL Zumel was incoming Baron. Those were the days of idealism and integrity not only of cadets but graduates who manned the ramparts of the armed forces. Generals were not dime a dozen then– hindi mamera. They live and practice the idealism and integrity they learned in the academy. Tirso Fajardo and his kind had retired without a cloud of doubt on their integrity, honesty and competence and love of country. Ask the man in the street now about retired generals and be surprised of their answers.
What I read just now in this section are merely paper tenets and blahs blahs about cadet life. They don’t apply to Colonels and Generals and their wives now, much more to commander in chiefs and their spouses, that’s asking for the moon, if not plain naivete. In these days of elephant skins and souless faces those norms of conduct will have no effect but get loud and long guffaws.
Graduates takes a long time to nurture for corruption and betrayal of one’s country and people. It probably takes shorter time for the police, as some rookie cops have proven. It’s a slow process, a few years incarceration by rebellious captains, or an early assignment in the office of comptrollers might do it. A few books may not suffice to illustrate the process of transforming cadet to hoodlum. PCIJ should research and write on the lifestyle of Colonels and Generals both in the AFP and the PNP. The people may just content themselves to read the dailies and follow the lives of newsmakers. The exceptions don’t stay long in the news.
What then could be the “alternative” that will be viable, feasible and implementable? Retire and compensate all those holding the ranks of lieutenant colonels to generals in the AFP and the PNP. Of course, that’s not probable but possible if the people aided first by disgusted soldiers carry it out.
masha
June 18th, 2005 at 1:33 am
an “all right, ma’am” ringtone, anyone?
anyway, this entry is similar to lito banayo’s column 18 VI 05. here’s the link if you want to check it out
http://www.malaya.com.ph/jun18/edbanayo.htm
mon
June 18th, 2005 at 9:15 am
Half-truth
In that case, all PMA adoptees must live up to this code.
Exactly why, before we get swept away by this “Hello, Garci?”” brouhaha, there is a very critical point that the people and more especially, the people in the media who are supposed to intelligently and objectively disseminate factual information, – seems to have forgotten, or more likely, by the machinations of the “opposition,” meant to overlook.
The people is entitled to know if, aside from “Robert Barbers” and GMA, there are personalities from the opposition who committed the same thing – tried, whether he failed or succeeded, to pad the votes he got from the last election. It is a pathetic naivety to consider that only the camp of GMA subverted the will of the people.
The greater danger of getting rid of GMA because of this peddled taped conversation is, those who managed to influence or pay for the “wire-tappers”” to erase or splice their voices out of what has been “allowed” to be “discovered” will end up running this country into deeper malevolence.
The people deserve the truth about the “alleged” GMA blatant cheating and dishonesty, but not at the expense of getting more of the same, be it Noli de Castro, FVR or anyone from the opposition who conveniently and expensively managed to “erase” the trail of their own cheating.
The truth will set us free. Half-truth will bind us into a deeper shit hole.
mon
June 18th, 2005 at 9:16 am
Half-truth
In that case, all PMA adoptees must live up to this code.
Exactly why, before we get swept away by this “Hello, Garci?”” brouhaha, there is a very critical point that the people and more especially, the people in the media who are supposed to intelligently and objectively disseminate factual information, – seems to have forgotten, or more likely, by the machinations of the “opposition,” meant to overlook.
The people is entitled to know if, aside from “Robert Barbers” and GMA, there are personalities from the opposition who committed the same thing – tried, whether he failed or succeeded, to pad the votes he got from the last election. It is a pathetic naivety to consider that only the camp of GMA subverted the will of the people.
The greater danger of getting rid of GMA because of this peddled taped conversation is, those who managed to influence or pay for the “wire-tappers”” to erase or splice their voices out of what has been “allowed” to be “discovered” will end up running this country into deeper malevolence.
The people deserve the truth about the “alleged” GMA blatant cheating and dishonesty, but not at the expense of getting more of the same, be it Noli de Castro, FVR or anyone from the opposition who conveniently and expensively managed to “erase” the trail of their own cheating.
The truth will set us free. Half-truth will bind us into a deeper shit hole.
jor-el alfuente
June 18th, 2005 at 2:18 pm
and so cadets from pma has this honor code…”not to lie,not to cheat,and not to steal”.when they become military officers,do they have also this honor code to mount coup-de-etats regardless of whatever greivances that this officers have seen appropriate to take down a government for the good of the filipino people? or power grab?… in 1989 a good friend of mine was shot dead by a stray bullet in legarda st,manila that night when the pma military officers staged an assault in malacanan to topple the cory government.this officers that came from pma stole lives and not only a life for their own self interest in lauching coups.is it proper then to tell the readers that pma code of honor is one way to become a good and effective leader? jor-el of jubail city,eastern province,kingdom of saudi arabia
jor-el alfuente
June 18th, 2005 at 5:22 pm
and so cadets from pma has this honor codes…”not to lie,not to cheat and not to steal”.when they became military officers,do they have also this honor code to mount coup-de-etats regardless of whatever greivances that this officers have seen appropriate to take down a government for the good of the filipino people…or a power grab?.in 1989 a good friend of mine was shot dead by a stray bullet in legarda,manila on the night that this pma military officers launched a coup to topple the cory government.this officers stole lives and not only a life.is this the way to serve and protect the filipino people? code of honor or self interest? is it proper then to say that pma code of honor is one way to become a good and effective leader. so many questions but it seems that at this point of time nobody wants to answer and never will be??
jor-el
REDICO,Jubail Industrial city
Eastern Province,Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
masha
June 19th, 2005 at 3:34 am
good point, mon.
i sense somehow that the reason why a lot of politicians are not asking for gma’s head on a plate is that they are afraid that the rest of the tapes may come out, and that they may come out to bite them.
even the conversations that we have heard are sometimes cut abruptly and you wonder what was talked about after that.
also the timidity of biazon in scoring barbers after listening to the tapes is suspect. if he had clean hands, you can be sure that he would make/have made a lot of noise.
with all the help barbers is getting from mike a and garci and the money flowing garci’s way, you wonder, with a close race, how biazon got through. it seems to me that somebody is working overtime on biazon’s side.
you can see from the tapes that there were times when garci was trumped by other comelec commissioners. does that mean that other candidates were bearing down on them as well? kanya-kanyang commissioner?
it seems though that even if there were differences between commissioners they were one in getting gma what she wanted.
jun_rivero
June 19th, 2005 at 5:20 am
“all right, sir!” to Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia, PMA Class 1971
sef
June 19th, 2005 at 7:58 am
Obviously, Alecks’ one purpose of posting this letter is to voice the position that PGMA should break her silence and must speak out the truth. Is Mr. Pabico trying to hide behind someone else’s letter rather than voice the opinion himself? Or is he just trying to save us from insult by not stating the obvious?
While a PMAer’s Honor Code provokes in us the romance of idealism, I am sure no one believes that such Honor Codes remain unbroken, even by that same cadet in the letter. The truth is, “hazing” breaks the cited Honor Code itself and there is nothing romantic in that!
Or is the letter posted to provoke a sense of action and danger – that the PMAers will and should not tolerate what is happening to the country as per Honor Code #4? As in everybody now, to the edge of your seats, hold your breath?
I have seen too much of these already, “tabloid journalism” in mainstream media. Such, even when interspersed with supposed truth, discipline, idealism, values and honor, should have no place, and for all places, here.
Alecks Pabico
June 19th, 2005 at 6:45 pm
Sef, don’t impute malice to this post. My intention was merely in keeping with one of the reasons why we have this blog in the first place — to present our readers with as many diverse voices as possible.
sef
June 20th, 2005 at 5:36 am
If “diverse” was your intention… it does not show.
Meanwhile, “juicy” is all over the place.
brulyo
June 21st, 2005 at 4:34 am
Eh paano si Mike Arroyo who is an adopted member of PMA Class 1974, Luli 91 and Mikey Arroyo PMA night class?
leatherneck
June 22nd, 2005 at 9:25 am
Masha questioned the “timidity” of Senator Biazon and even went further to wonder how he was able to make it to the winning slate. Connecting the two, she even insinuated that perhaps Senator Biazon himself was guilty of cheating that’s why he’s not acting the way she expects him to.
But let’s look at the other side of the coin…
He made it to the winning slate because he really had sufficient votes to land him in the top 12. Previous to the elections, he consistently placed in the top 6 of the surveys, at one time even maing it to number 2.
At the start of the vote counting, he placed from #5 to #8. But when the votes from the usually controversial provinces came in, particularly those from Mindanao, he started to slide down. It was shades of 1995 all over again for him, the year that he was victimized by dagdag-bawas together with Nene Pimentel.
It is a good thing that the experience of 1995 taught him well. People must realize that it is easier to defend votes that you already have than buy votes that you do not have. IN 1995, Senator Biazon did not have the machinery and the knowledge of how to defend against election cheats. In 2004, it was a different story.
In defending one’s votes, all you need are the people and the law. Everything you will need to do is legal, and sometimes, people will help you even at no cost. Since everything is above-board, you are not asking people to go out of their way and risk their neck to make sure you get the votes counted.
Among politicians, you will often hear them say that it’s easy to convince people to vote for you…the hard part is getting it counted. “Nanalo sa botohan, natalo sa bilangan”.
On the other hand, getting votes that you don’t have by cheating is a costly way to get into office. You will have to pay off a lot of people, and since the risks are great, so is the price tag. If you’ve listened to the tapes, I guess you have an idea about the cost.
So it is a lot easier to defend your position than to be the aggressor and cheat your way in. Sabi nga, “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. So if the good men just do their jobs, then the cheaters will not succeed.
Just as in military strategy, where the superior defense position is the high ground, so it is with elections. If the aggressor attacks a defended position in high ground, it is usually at the cost of many lives.
As a Marine officer, Senator Biazon saw the attack coming and dug in to defend his position. For the basketball afficionados: “The best offense is a good defense”.
As to his “timidity”, the common reaction would be “Bakit hindi pa mag-alboroto si Senator Biazon?” True, most people believe that it would be an expected, justifiable act on the part of Senator Biazon after hearing the tapes where voices from the past haunt him like ghosts. After all, it was a nightmare for him.
But he is one who, like a chess player and military tactician that he is, will think of the consequences of his immediate action and plan out the next three moves, including variations.
The Book of Proverbs says, “A fool gives vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” Senator Biazon believes that now is the time for all of us to be sober,but of course, without giving up the fight for what is right and the truth.
For him to raise a ruckus at this point and call attention to his case would opnly serve his personal interest and divert attention from the real issues of the day. The Biazon-Barbers row is already at the supreme court and the controversy surrounding the fight for the 12 Senatorial slot is best discussed at another time and instance.
He is also cautious not to be used by anyone to serve their personal political interests and agenda. A careful study on his pronouncements will reveal that he is not timid in the face of this crisis but just being sober at a time of craziness.
dsaint
June 23rd, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Hey Alecks,
May I request for you and your friends at PCIJ to investigate what DEMANDS were met by GMA and her government for the “timely” release of Bobby Tarongoy. At saan kinuha ang mga “DEMANDS” na yon. I just feel that this is another “squid” tactic of her to distract us from the real grave issue.
Maraming Salamat and GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
magbobote
June 24th, 2005 at 2:50 am
Download the 3 hour tape and paguia tape
http://www.defensive-thinking.com