OpinionsThe Way It IsThose who disgrace the uniform

Those who disgrace the uniform

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — Once upon a time, those who were accepted to the Philippine Military Academy were special, almost with God-given vocations, like priests, destined to serve their country with selfless devotion, to protect those who cannot defend themselves, and to answer their country’s call with COURAGE, INTEGRITY, LOYALTY.

It was a time long ago when Filipinos felt the utmost pride when a son, a relative or friend was accepted to the prestigious institution that in the past had given the country countless trustworthy military men, some later becoming civilian heads of government departments, while still some becoming politicians.

Never at that distant time did we have any doubt in those honorable officers and gentlemen. They maintained their integrity as officers and civilians even through the most trying times in our country’s history, and in whatever position they were entrusted with.

They protected the public’s trust zealously. They were incorruptible. They were the go-to kind of individuals when total integrity and trustworthiness were required.

Today, whatever pride we’ve always had in the PMA, and in those who have walked through her proud halls and marched her hallowed parade grounds, have all but crumbled in the wake of the recent revelations that have come out of the investigations on the Good Conduct Time Allowance law–the case of the ‘ninja cops’.

If you have watched the Senate inquiry into this, as has been extensively shown in the news and posted on YouTube, you surely must have seen the utter unprofessionalism that these, these products of the PMA of the past 40 years, have shown.

I cringe as I watch these dishonest excuses for officers (majors, colonels, generals) displaying their deviousness, perpetrating fraud against the government and the people to whom they have sworn an oath.

Clearly, they have not learned the one thing that all officers are charged with knowing–owning command responsibility.

These sorry excuses for officers have shown the ugliest examples that any military officer could possibly show subordinates–lying, conniving, stealing, concealing, etc.

It is clear, in the way they answer the Senate’s questions, they are lying through their teeth, each covering his own ass, even at the expense of total personal embarrassment.

How, on God’s green earth, can professional military officers, products of the country’s most respectable military academy, not know what happens in their own commands?

They have the most skewed interpretation of how senior officers should take care of their own, taking it as far as covering their people’s dishonorable deeds or crimes.

I know some people who have graduated from the PMA who, as far as I can recall, were all working outside of the military when I came to know them. To me, it didn’t matter–I had a special kind of respect for them simply because they were PMA’ers. Their being such preceded them, and to me, if the Academy was prestigious, they were prestigious, beyond reproach.

It wasn’t an easy thing to be accepted into the PMA. Those who did get accepted truly had something going for them, and they had what it took for the institution to mold respectable officers who would one day continue the Philippine military’s tradition of excellence.

Now, I feel so uncomfortable that we may all be protected by people who may or may not be honorable and trustworthy.

How can we really know that they are or not? Will we always need a retired general to open that can of worms and tell all?

So many civilian lives have been lost in the war on drugs, and whether they deserved it or not now becomes questionable because those they were up against may just have been as bad.

For sure, those ‘ninja cops’ are now facing the most trying time of their lives because they will have to answer for the wrongs they have done.

However, it is lamentable that some of their superiors would rather brush elbows with career destruction than to act fast and definitively against them. Could they be involved as well? Is that why they are trying their best to skirt around command responsibility?

Let us all hope that the Senate will triumph in seeing through their smokescreen, and stop them from passing the buck.

The PNP is our ultimate protector, but it would seem that we would need another protector to protect us from them.

All the things that are happening in our country now are embarrassing to us all. They reflect badly upon us. Damn these corrupt cops for eroding our pride; for capping the statement that the Philippines is the most corrupt country in the world.

If Filipinos are truly smart, as they claim and believe they are, they should force an overhaul of the country’s police force before its cancer has metastasized, choking the country, destroying it from within.

It may not even hurt to go as far as overhauling the Philippine Military Academy, as the country investigates why these bad officers have turned out the way they have, disgracing their uniform, and the traditions that so many before them upheld and protected with the ultimate sacrifice.

Of all the instances of corruption that have been uncovered of late, this must be the most damaging because it is perpetrated by the police who we hold with the highest regard.

If not for that retired General who told all, how could they have been suspected of being criminals themselves when they are the police?

Just my take on the way it is. God bless the Philippines.

_____________________________

Author’s email: [email protected]

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