What being an inch too short can do to you

For our special presentation on our talkshow “Straight from the Sky” we once again bring you what is happening with the nation’s flag carrier, Philippine Airlines (PAL) with my good friend, Mr. Harry Inoferio, senior vice president for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. It’s a perfect time for PAL as it got its four-star airline rating from Skytrax.

As we learned from Harry, PAL has a new president, Gilbert Santa Maria, who has yet to meet PAL’s executives later. So watch this show with Mr. Harry Inoferio tonight on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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The proposal to abolish the height requirement for those seeking to join the PNP, Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology sits well with Central Visayas’ top police officials. Homer Cabaral, National Police Commission director, said “attitude” and “abilities” should be the primary considerations in selecting applicants. “Good attitude is way more important than height,” he said. I was totally surprised why we had this requirement in our police and military.

To press home my point, my fellow columnist Paul Oaminal wrote a very nice article about my maternal grandfather Capt. Valeriano Segura and his exploits as a government official and his death in the Battle of Bataan. But what people really don’t know is that my grandpa was number one in the list when he applied for West Point.

But my grandfather was an inch too short of the West Point height requirement at the time. So his American supervisors still shipped him to America a month on a boat and on a train from the West Coast with the order to put him on the chinning bar everyday hopefully to stretch him an inch longer.

When he arrived in West Point, they realized that he was still an inch too short; hence the guy who was second to his grade, Mr. Jesus A. Villamor, took his place as the first Filipino to graduate from West Point. His name is enshrined as Camp Jesus Villamor Airbase, formerly Nichols Airbase. If my grandpa wasn’t an inch too short that airbase should have been called Segura Airbase.

Mind you, in one of my motorcycle rides in Luzon10 years ago, I met the son of Col. Villamor and told him my family’s story about my grandpa and his only reply was, “No wonder papa had to be sent to the US in a hurry!” As for my grandpa, the Americans told him that he was not going back to the Philippines and instead sent him to Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, where he took Civil Engineering and became an engineer.

After he returned to the Philippines he built the Cebu Normal University (which was later turned into Kempetai HQ by the Japanese Imperial Army) and the Cebu Maternity Clinic. He also built many of the roads around Cebu Province, including one near Sogod called a circuitous road the Emee road, but we were told that it was really “VS”, the initials of Lolo Valen.

Since he really wanted to join the military, Lolo Valen joined the Philippine Scouts and when the war began, they were stationed by the USAFFE in Bataan to stop the Japanese invasion. He was killed in one of the encounters with the Japanese and hurriedly buried, but since his unit hastily retreated, they didn’t know where his grave was. After the war, my uncle, Col. Manuel F. Segura went to Bataan to search for his grave and he was told that most of the graves were dug out and placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.

If my grandpa’s remains are there then he is in a good place. As I’ve said, I’m named after my grandpa Valeriano and yes, an elder Valeriano Segura is the son of Archt. Gregorio Segura whom Oaminal omitted in his article. Today, West Point no longer has any height restrictions as short soldiers can do communication, digital work, or even fight in aerial battles like flying drones into combat zones. So I personally support the bill filed by Cebu’s 3rd District representative, Pablo John “PJ” Garcia, to remove height restrictions in the PNP and the military.