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Saturday, April 23, 1939

I decide to quit the Philippine Army today. I will write Valdez my feelings about the selection of Laconico to the FA school. I will assert broadly that he could not pass the course, and will not be a credit to the PA or to the Filipino people.

In my letter to the President requesting relief I will state — I am subjected to a severe strain amidst a surroundings where decisions are made not on sound military precepts but on expediencies, where reward is given not on the demonstrated result of effort but on how close you are to those who that make decisions, where honesty and convictions are not the basis of decisions but the desire to please. My character rebels under these surroundings and I can not give my best to my work. I lose faith in the future of the army unless more strict adherence to principles is made I work on only one  principle — that principle of carrying out a military objective on the basis of right and wrong. I have only one standard. I can not function in an atmosphere of varying standards.

I will tell the President — In this my last act as an officer of the Philippine Army I want to thank the President for reposing in me his confidence as shown by my commission and in the several conferences on important matters in which he sought my opinions.