PAMPANGA. PMA cadets assist school children during a feeding program in Barangay Santa Ines East, Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac. (Homer Teodoro)
Some 91 cadets belonging to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) graduating class 2015 stayed in Tarlac Province for three days.
Their visit is part of the IPSP Bayanihan or the Armed Forces of the Philippines Internal Peace and Security Plan. It is an "immersion mission" wherein cadets will mingle with the community.
The PMA curriculum requires cadets to associate with the common people they will serve.
"They have been in the Academy learning other matters as military man and now we bring them down again to the people as ordinary folks," an officer of the PMA who asked not to be named said.
He said they have been doing this in the Academy since 2007.
He admitted that immersion is also being executed by communists to win the hearts of the barrio folks.
The cadets wowed the Tarlaqueños as they performed a silent drill in the City Plazuela.
They went house to house greeting locals and spending a little time for "chit-chat."
They also assisted the local government unit in providing free anti-rabies vaccine in the community.
They assisted the senior citizens in their household chores and fed children who went to the feeding program.
The cadets have shown the community that they are simple folks too. They drank "buko juice," ate "halo-halo" and "chitchiria" from barangay vendors. They also told the residents stories about their life in the academy.
The people were a little curious, asking why two bus-loads of soldiers were in their area. The cadets were wearing Army uniforms with bold name plates displayed in their uniforms that say CCAFP or Cadet Corps of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
They did not conceal their identities because according to one of their officers "they have nothing to hide from the people who pay for their education in the Academy."
Some 172 cadets will graduate next summer with the starting rank of second lieutenant. There are 16 women cadets in this batch and 92 of them have opted to join the Army, 45 are joining the Navy and 25 will go to the Air Force.
The 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Jesus Rico Atencio, escorted the cadets in their immersion.
He said the IPSP Bayanihan has been going on for a time, in cooperation with government agencies.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/local-news/2014/11/23/pma-cadets-visit-tarlac-378188
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