Number of PMA aspirants hits record high with 14,552

BAGUIO CITY -  – The number of Philippine Military Academy cadet hopefuls has reached a record high with 14,552 individuals wanting to enter the premier military training school in the country.

PMA Spokesperson Captain Lynnette Flores said here at Fort Del Pilar alone, some 3,600 examinees cramped the testing center last August 26, while some 10,000 more took the examinations in 36 other testing centers around the country.

PMA Public Information Officer Captain Agnes Lynette Flores said some 14,917 applicants qualified for the cadet qualifying test with some 14,829 individuals taking the examination.

Only 14,552 examinees, however, completed the cadet qualifying exam.

Successful entrants for this year will compose PMA class of 2017, which the AFP is expecting to first benefit from the AFP’s future defense acquisitions placing the country into at least a minimum credible defense posture.

PMA usually gets the highest 200 from the examinees. 

In PMA’s more than a hundred years, this year’s number of aspirants was the highest so far attributing to the academy’s launching of the online registration more than five years ago, Flores said.

In Camp Aguinaldo at Quezon City, the Armed Forces of the Philippines’s general headquarters, AFP spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos Jr., said in a statement that the institutional reforms implemented by the PMA is the reason why more and more want to become cadets.

Burgos Jr. said lowering of the height requirement to five feet for both from five feet and four inches for males and five feet and two inches for females is one of the reasons for the rise in applications.

The AFP spokesperson also cited factors such as sustained information campaigns, introduction of no maltreatment policy and opening of the PMA to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as part of their anti-discrimination policies.

PMA superintendent Maj. Gen. Nonato Peralta said with the increased number of applicants, “(the widened) pool of cadet candidates assures a deep selection of those who possess the qualifications PMA is looking for in its cadets.”

This comes as PMA has strengthened measures to eradicate hazing by providing a more responsive and relevant training environment that is people-centered and observant of human rights, Peralta said.