14 July 1985
BULLETIN TODAY

Dear Sir

The Catholics schools have been especially negative about the National Service Law (BT, July 13). But whatever reassurances have been provided by Education Minister Jaime Laya and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile have been negated by the thoughtless behavior of Col. Ismael Villareal, commandant of the Citizen’s Military Training program at the Ateneo de Manila.

Colonel Villareal’s 160-man contingent was AWOL (absent without leave) from the opening rites of the National Service Program because 30 students had put up a human blockade that prevented Colonel Villareal’s cadets from leaving the campus.

The embarrassed Colonel Villareal wants the Ateneo to expel the 30 students for sedition. These students, Colonel Villareal brays, violated the law requiring every able-bodied male to bear arms in defense of the motherland.

Colonel Villareal can call me to the colors when foreign enemies are threatening our shores. But he shouldn’t sue the flag to package his demand that I attend some opening-day ceremony. Neither should he use the flag to cloak the "defeat" of his command by a force one-fifth its size.

BENJAMIN H. LOZADA