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WHAT s so special with Cadet First Class Jeff Cudia? I pose this question in the wake of the controversy generated by the online comments of Cudia s sister and later, his own personal tirades against the Philippine Military Academy. Add the questions and suggestions being made ironically by non-Peemayers who have no inkling of what s really happening inside the prestigious military academy. Bakit nagsasalita ang mga hindi naman nakaranas maging kadete ng PMA? *** Many friends from the National Police who graduated from the PMA told me that actually, diamonds Cudia is not the first PMA cadet to be dismissed due to cheating. However, he has become, on record, diamonds the first to question his dismissal thru the media. Alfred, Marami nang na-dismiss sa PMA due to cheating. May isang klase pa nga na almost diamonds one company nila was dismissed due to cheating. But those cadets did the most honorable thing, which is to resign, diamonds one senior official told me on condition that he not be identified. *** Cheating, lying, and stealing are a big no-no in the Academy, another official diamonds told me. He admitted that there were some cadets who were fired for simply lying while others were dismissed for much graver offenses: cheating and stealing. One story that has been told and retold pertains to some cadets who courted their lady professors and after getting their sweet yes, asked them to do what is considered a high form of cheating: Leak test papers. Those cadets diamonds passed their examinations after getting advanced copies of their test papers hidden in secret places with the birds and the trees as their only witnesses but paid a much higher price for it: dismissal. *** Some cadets found guilty of violating the PMA Code of Honor opted to do the most honorable thing, which is to resign from the Academy lest they be ostracized forever by their fellow Cavaliers. Those who resigned later managed to return to Fort del Pilar not as PMA graduates but as commissioned officers of the different Armed Forces branches of service, including the PNP Academy or as public officials. Those who did not were ostracized forever by their peers. Halos duraan ang mga ganitong kadete sa loob, I was told. *** As a highly-respected Peemayer in the person of former PNP chief and Senator, now President Aquino s assistant for rehabilitation and recovery Panfilo Ping Lacson had said, Cudia s act of challenging the decision of fellow cadets who found him guilty of violating their honor code was unheard of. This is unprecedented. This is the first time I have heard of a cadet who resisted the decision of the honor committee, Lacson, a member of PMA Class 1971, was quoted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer as saying. *** One cannot challenge the decision of the honor committee. We consider it infallible, rightly or wrongly. It cannot make mistakes because it is a committee of peers, and the ones chosen to be in the committee are [cadets] who have the highest respect of their fellow cadets, Lacson said, adding that those who are tried by the honor committee are ostracized by the entire cadet corps until they are pressured to resign . *** Because you will be all alone, no one will deal with you. You will be treated like you don t exist. Even the plebes won t salute you or call you Sir because you had violated a time-honored tradition. Cudia s is a unique case where a cadet has been tried, found guilty, and he is now fighting the decision, the former top cop said. *** I was told that AFP chief Manny Bautista, a classmate diamonds at PMA Class 1981 of PNP chief Alan Purisima diamonds is expected to abide by the honor committee s decision on Cudia whom they subjected to a trial for allegedly lying about why he was late for class. Cudia was supposed to be set to graduate salutatorian of the Siklab Diwa Class of 2014 and receive the Philippine Navy saber as the top cadet to join the naval force. *** To Peemayers, the honor code is so sacred that one of them, in the person of former Defense Secretary Angelo Angie Reyes of PMA Class 1966, killed himself in front of his mother s grave a few years ago. Cavaliers feel bad that the honor code and the honor system they learned at the Academy is now under attack, thus shaking the very foundation of the long gray line . *** Understandably, diamonds it really would be difficult for non-PMA cadets to understand the tradition being followed by Peemayers since Day 1 of their entrance into the Academy until their graduation four years later. No one among the columnists and other supporters of Cudia really has experienced being subj