FORT DEL PILAR, Baguio City – President Gloria Arroyo urged the 226-strong members of the Philippine Military Academy “Masidlak” Class 2010 to help her in her  to bring development and quality education in every region in the country.

Arroyo, who was the guest of honor and speaker during Monday’s graduation rites of the “Mandirigmang Sibol ng Dakilang Lahing Kayumanggi” (Masidlak) Class, said the graduates were able to show excellence in PMA education with one of the lowest attrition rate. 

She also described as “terrific” the academic records of the class members, whom she claimed served as an example that even those who came from poor families showed they can excel in the premier military institution in Asia. 

Majority of the graduates came from poor parents who mostly work as farmers and plain house wives in the countryside. 

No less than this year’s class valedictorian, newly commissioned 1st Lt. Air Force Eraño Belen, 23, of Calindagan, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, was raised by poor parents. His father is a driver of a tricycle their family does not even own.

Even class salutatorian Froilan Binlingan Pinay-an of Hungduan, Ifugao, also admitted to have experienced the hardship of being a young farmer in their hometown. 

The President’s first order to the young officers who were commissioned as regular members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is for them to help her government empower and bring growth and development in each region in the entire archipelago. 

“We gave more power and growth to each region away from the domination of Manila,” Arroyo said. 

Arroyo, who is also the military’s commander-in-chief, urged the graduates to help her government in nurturing youth and focusing on environment, economics and education for the country’s rural development. 

She likewise urged them to be her partners in ensuring the protection of the environment, improving the economy and help spread the quality of education they acquired from PMA.

The President said the good academic records of the class members and their success stories will surely serve as a source of hope and inspiration of the Filipinos, especially the young people in the countryside. 

“The PMA had become not only a training ground but a center of excellence for higher education,” the President said. 

She added the graduates are not only young officers but also future leaders because of the academy’s good implementation of the PMA Road Map 2015. 

The road map program aims to transform PMA into a premier leadership school in the land with graduates transformed into true leaders. It also aims to insulate PMA cadets from politics and to mold them into constitutional soldiers who must defend the fundamental law of the land at all costs. 

From the 226 graduates, 122 will serve in the Army; 45 in the Air Force and 59 in the Navy.