Dr. Alfredo Pajarillo (BT, Dec. 2) has traced the increase of psychiatric cases among our military personnel to the worsening economic situation and the stresses of combat. Mr. Ramon Tulfo (BT, Dec. 3) has warned us to expect more "crazy" behavior from military personnel in the near future.

But we can minimize the incidence of such "crazy" behavior if Dr. Pajarillo and his colleagues at the AFP Medical Center conducted regular psychiatric examinations of our officers and men and if those personnel showing early signs of cracking under the strain were transferred to less demanding duties.

Such psychiatric examinations should also be given to some civilian employees of the Ministry of National Defense. The Employees Compensation Commission has just awarded permanent disability benefits to the former chief investigator of the ministry’s complaints and action division (BT, Nov. 30), ruling that the man’s "nerve-wracking duties" had "increased his risk of contracting his schizophrenia."

The larger appropriation needed by Dr. Pajarillo and his colleagues to conduct such periodic examinations would be a small price to pay for reducing psychopathological behavior among our military personnel.

ALICE MORANAS