SUPPORT THE BEACON, LIGHTEN UP THE FLAME

[ friends, relatives, acquaintances, colleagues - we ask you this little favor:
Change your Profile Picture as well ]

The issue of "2 minutes short from the Honor Code" has been taken advantage by some people especially from the media who wants to be on the spotlight. These are the likes of Anthony Taberna, Karen Davila, Tulfo, a certain Dahli Aspillera, and other reporters who CORRUPT the freedom of the press by giving irresponsible statements such as attacking the Honor Code and the Philippine Military Academy. Understandably, these people are only making business out of the present issue, flaming up stories, turn them into controversies and increase their popularity.

It is very seldom that the sons and daughters of the academy rise up to protect the code and the academy. This is when the foundation and the name of the institution is in danger. PMA is not just about the rigid military training nor the academics nor the brotherhood of mistahs nor is it about a rotting plebe or of good-looking uniform of cadets. The Honor Code is what makes the academy different from UP, La Salle, Ateneo, Mapua or any other public or private tertiary academic institution. PMA cadets, whether they graduate or not, take pride of what the code has thought them. Even those who were discharged because of the Honor Code. I hope even Cadet Cudia have internalized this. Cadet Cudia knows what is in store for him if he opted to face the consequences. 

In the same manner that one will never understand Bushido unless one becomes a Samurai, one will never truly understand our Honor Code unless one becomes a PMAyer. The Honor Code teaches us not simply bravery but true courage. If you erred, have the courage to accept your mistake and face the consequences. Half truth is a LIE. If your handkerchief is in the barracks but when you were asked if you have one and you answered YES - that's already a LIE.

The academy may not be perfect. Her products are not perfect either. But she has instilled something among her graduates that is essential for them as they become officers, generals, congressmen, senators, officials of public and private institutions or simply as citizens. She transforms kids into gentlemen, with honor. But she can only transform so much within four years. She is not an assembly line that replaces the memory card and storage disks of her products. We were transformed but never replaced.  

Some of us who made it through the portals of the academy have committed mistakes or made wrong decisions. That is because we are not perfect as well. But because of the academy, we made a difference, in our own ways. But most of us, made that difference through our lives. So that you may enjoy the freedom you are now very comfortable with, that you have disregarded the sacrifices, the sweat and blood of our brothers who left their family for the good of the country. The same freedom of the press some media personalities are ABUSING right now.

We are not against these reporters, commentators and writers. In fact we admire most of them and many are our friends as well. But some of them may also be lost but they are not forgotten, just like other cavaliers who were placed in bad limelight. In fact the others have been discharged from the service, including Generals.  That's because we never tolerate them, just like how a salutatorian was never tolerated.  No organization is perfect.  No graduates of the academy will be.  We also make mistakes and could even deviate from what the Honor Code has taught us.  But this Code guides us individually and collectively.  In the absence of an Honor Committee in the open world of politics, business and mass media, the Honor Code remains within each of the cavaliers, of each former cadet,  and even passed down to their own families, their work and their communities.  Bits of embers that when placed together creates a flame, a flame that brightens the Beacon of the Land.  These embers will also keep aflame those who are no longer ablaze.

Those embers keep flaming because of the Honor Code.

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OUR APPEAL TO YOU:

If you are among those who have been aflame, inspired, motivated or influenced positively in a way or another by any cadet, cavalier, the PMA or the code, we would like to ask you a simple favor this time.  Support our cause by bringing the message to them.  Join us in this peaceful stand.  Change your profile picture in facebook and in any other social media for at least seven days using your close-up photo with that person in his or her cadet uniform.  If in case you known him after cadet days, then use their cadet profile picture instead.  In this way, you will help us let them know what they didn't know.  You will help us keep the beacon flaming bright.

Maraming salamat...