She wants to be first Pinay Navy admiral

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — Hanna Lea Alerta has set her sights on becoming the first woman admiral in the Philippine Navy.

Born of humble origins, the 23-year-old Alerta is the first Filipina to graduate from the prestigious US Naval Academy in Annapolis, a 45-minute drive from Washington, DC. Five years ago, she also topped the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) entrance exams.

When Alerta left her dusty fishing town of Digos, Davao del Sur, for Annapolis, half a world and a lifetime away, little did she know she might become a footnote in the annals of the Philippine Navy.

"I’m just taking it one year a time. I’m not going into it in the hope of making history, of (becoming) an admiral. If it happens, it happens," Alerta told The STAR in an interview at the naval academy.

At first glance she looks just like any ordinary village lass. She giggles a lot, blushes when she talks about her boyfriend, a Filipino-American who is also in the academy, and cups her mouth with her hand when she laughs, not to cover the braces in her teeth, but because she’s shy.

She mouths politically correct phrases like "giving back to the community" and "making a difference." But she is no idealist, no pie-in-the-sky dreamer.

"If after eight years I don’t like what I’m doing. I’ll quit," she said matter-of-factly. "If I like the Navy, I’ll make it my career and see where it leads me."

Her official graduation ceremony is set for May 28. Then she goes back to Manila to receive her ensign’s bars and begin her journey to the unknown.

Alerta is obliged to serve a minimum eight years in the Philippine Navy to pay off the $250,000 invested in her by the US government to cover her board, tuition and stipend in four years at Annapolis.

She received her primary and secondary education in Davao, before she entered the University of the Philippines in Quezon City. Acting on a dare, she took the entrance exam at the PMA in 1999 at the end of her sophomore year.

From a field of 10,000 who took the exams, she finished at the top of the heap.

After her freshman year at the PMA, Alerta said her superiors advised her to apply for admission at Annapolis. She was one of 11 candidates throughout the world chosen to go to the US Naval Academy.

"It was then that I decided to make the military my career. I wanted to serve my country, to make a difference," she said.

Alerta said her dreams of making a career in the Navy and being the first woman admiral were somewhat tarnished by what she saw last summer when she spent five weeks aboard LC551 (BRP Dagupan City) in Palawan.

"I saw a lot of service people who were not happy with their job. Their salaries are not competitive, the military is too politicized, and there is so much graft and corruption in all facets of society. I could go on and on. If my eight years with the Philippine Navy are productive and challenging, then I’ll stay on. If not, I’ll have to consider other options," she said.

Asked to compare her first years at the PMA and at Annapolis, Alerta said she found it tougher at the PMA.

"Women cadets are a relatively new phenomenon in the PMA, so it was harder to be accepted there. I guess the fact that as a woman I topped the exams was also held against me by the upperclassmen. I had more to prove," she said.

According to her, the PMA is more physically demanding because of the macho culture in the institution.

"Although I’m a minority in race and gender at Annapolis, I was able to fit in much more easily. The emphasis here is more on leadership. Also the US navy has had women sailors a long time ago, so we’re not an oddity," she said.

Out of a graduating class of 1,013 midshipmen, Alerta ranked 243rd. Her major was systems engineering.

Alerta is one of five siblings. Her parents, Vergilio and Lucia, are provincial government bureaucrats who are coming to her graduation next week.

She is helping pay their fare with savings from her $400 a month subsidy at Annapolis.

"My father is so excited at coming to the States. He said he was bringing some halo-halo mix so he could have halo-halo with real snow. I had to tell him it’s not winter anymore here," she said.

Following in Alerta’s footsteps is friend and compatriot Rea Leanne Dacanay, who graduates next year — the second Filipina product of Annapolis.

Dacanay, 20, comes from a military family. Her father, Capt. Rafael Dacanay (Annapolis Class ’76) is the current defense attaché to Pakistan and her grandfather, Col. Patrocinio Dacanay (PMA Class ’43), was a military attaché to South Korea.

But what makes the Dacanays unique is that they are the first father and child from the Philippines to graduate from the same US service academy.

Unlike Alerta, Dacanay, who is from Makati City, joined Annapolis immediately after graduating from high school at St. Scholastica.

"My dad discouraged me from joining the service. He said it was going to be hard mentally and physically. But I think at the same time he’s proud of me," she said.

To date, about 40 Filipinos have graduated from Annapolis.

Maj. Gen. Delfin Lorenzana, defense attaché at the Philippine embassy in Washington, said only a few Filipino graduates of US service academies remain in the AFP until retirement.

"You can virtually count them with the fingers of one hand," he said.

They include former President Fidel Ramos, a West Point graduate; the late Gen. Rafael Ileto, a defense secretary under former President Corazon Aquino; and the present Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Narciso Abaya.

Lorenzana said the attrition rate is high because of better opportunities outside the military. Also many emigrate to the United States to reconnect with friends made during their formative years in a US service academy.