Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
ON Feb. 18, 2023, some 1,700 alumni — young and old, men and women — from different classes of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) paid homage to their alma mater, the "bright beacon of the land." President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was the guest of honor and speaker. Finally, after three years since the global health emergency prevented the holding of this event, all are eager and beaming with such undescribable feeling to march at the sacred grounds of the academy. To every PMA graduate, the ground "most sacred" is the Borromeo Field for it evokes indelible memories of their cadetship. From their reception rites to their graduation ceremonies, and everything else in between — innumerable parades and reviews, recognition rites, drills and ceremonies, awarding academic, and athletic excellence and serving of punishment — all happened in that hallowed ground. Borromeo Field is, to every PMAer, the alpha and the omega of their stay in the academy.
The PMA Alumni Association Inc. (PMAAAI) has on record 11,626 alumni reckoned from Class of 1945 up to Class of 2022 — 12 of them are recipients of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' highest award, the Medal for Valor. From that total, 2,713 have rendezvoused with our Creator. For the remaining 8,913 who are still with us, you will find them patrolling the hinterlands of Luzon, scouring the boondocks of the Visayas and the jungles of Mindanao, watching the fringes of the country's vast borders, and standing guard in some lonely and desolate posts in the South China Sea. Many of them occupy esteemed positions in the government, in the venerable halls of Congress, in bustling private and public corporations, or elsewhere around the world, and wherever else the demands of life's meaningful pursuits require them. They heeded the call and unselfishly gave their very all, even their lives if it need be.
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