Sentimental journey to the PMA

The Philippine Military Academy recently celebrated another homecoming. Communication groups, the Highway Patrol, were on the roadside. So were ambulances by the sidewalk. The cars slowly lined up in Luisita,Tarlac and Urdaneta, Pangasinan. Streamers were flying over roads from every PMA class. It was bonding time. That’s if you were not on duty or were broke to pay for your trip to Baguio City.

Baguio was worth the six to 11-hour trip because it meant bonding with mistahs and reviving feelings of loyalty, courage and even disappointment.

I myself have sentimental memories of the academy. There were arrival honors, a parade and review for me. There was a Saturday while doing library work as I watched the entire corps in formation according to their respective companies Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf and Hawk. I felt what every mother feels for her child, compassion and worry as drums dramatized their march to the mess hall. That day I learned that the baron marches ahead together with his staff. I also discovered what a battalion, a platoon, a squad or a company means. There was so much to remember that it would require another lifetime for me even to understand. And than what a shock it was hearing cadets bellow HAAAAAH, a tension reliever for those who failed their exams. I’ve watched these future servicemen solemnly hear Mass a few Sundays, and marveled on their upright posture, shoulders back, arms on their side, heads held high in their uniforms forming a line of gray, their brass buttons running straight across the pews looking like a highway made of gold. Right after Mass the cadets both male and female, silently lined up to march back to their barracks. I can’t help comparing them with some university students who noisily dashed out of the church, shouting while shoving the pews so that poor Manong the janitor had to arrange their messy state.

I’ve watched the cadets march and disappear downhill. "Now you see them, now you don’t." It’s going to be that way with uncertain field conditions once they’re assigned to hazardous areas. So unlike the cement pavements, architecturally sound structures, tile floorings and fortified grounds of the academy that supply austere but comfortable bedrooms. Parents will hardly see their children and their children will hardly see their spouses when they‘re probably sent to far Abra or Mindanao or NPA-infested Masbate.

* * *

Cadets claim they never thought bonds of friendship could emanate from their quarters as they never knew who their roommates would be. A positive example was First Class Jomer Hashim Manampan Hussein from Maguindanao and Cadet First Class Glen Mark Cabalquinto from Tarlac. As you may have guessed, Cadet Hussein is a Muslim. In the beginning they were a strange pair, but after a year they became bosom buddies inspite of different religions and backgrounds. The Philippine Military Academy certainly gave the boys the opportunity to understand northern and southern attitudes.

Thousands of young men and women, some from families who can’t afford a college education, take the PMA entrance exams given every September at various exam centers all over the country. They want to fulfill their dreams of a degree through soldiering. Future PMAyers must have a high school average of 80 percent. The PMA exam covers high school algebra and geometry, English grammar, composition and reading comprehension and the special PMA aptitude test on verbal and numerical, reasoning and pattern analysis.

Perhaps three-fourths of the examinees fail. Whose fault? Low quality high school education or the applicants themselves? Whichever, PMA Superintendent Brigadier General Edilberto Adan stresses quality not quantity. After all these future officers will one day lead the Armed Forces of the Philippines as our protectors and policy advisers.

Those who pass the written exams are sent to the AFP Medical Center for medical and physical fitness tests. Male and female applicants are required to complete 20 push-ups in two minutes and to do the sit and reach in a sitting position. That’s extending their thumbs to their toes reaching the length of 40 centimeters. Exercises for male and female applicants are a little different. For example, males are required to complete three repetitions of pull-ups while the females, a 20-second hand flexed arms. There is a five feet long jump for males and four feet jump for females. Males are expected to complete the 100-meter dash in 16 seconds while females, in 19 seconds. In one minute young men are required to finish 25 repetitions of sit-ups and 20 repetitions for women. Finally in the 3.2 kilometer run males should finish the run in 18 minutes, and the females in 20 minutes. Just writing about it already gets me exhausted.

After all those tests, out of the 11,197 examinees for 2003 the academy will accommodate only 250 to 300 by April 2004 from those who have qualified after the written, medical and physical exams. At the end of four years, in the academy up to graduation a cadet’s education would have cost the Philippine government a few millions in uniforms, shoes, towels and toiletries – even sanitary napkins for the ladies, a bull ring and mini ring etc, etc. All the expenses will be deducted from their salaries while schooling. Their salaries range between that of a master sergeant and a second lieutenant. When they graduate, they are assured of work... all too soon. Work! I hate to mention this but some prematurely give up their lives in the line of work and service to country.

* * *

I sat at the sparkling green PMA grounds as the cool breeze froze my cheeks. I asked Professor Mandy Castaneda and Col. Jun Manalastas PMA ’83: Why do you think these young men and women joined the academy? "To serve our country! An economic need and to fulfill a dream ... some, to follow in their fathers’ footsteps," they answered. What kept you going? I asked Col. Jun ... "Attitude, mindset to succeed, the stamina to endure."