MANILA, Philippines - The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said his presence or absence during Philippine Military Academy (PMA) events always puts him in a no-win situation.
“If go, some would say I’m courting the military. If I don’t go, they would criticize why I am not attending (the event),” President Aquino observed.
In a chance interview during Baler, Aurora’s 33rd founding anniversary, Aquino pointed out that there is only one PMA event where he is mandated to appear – the yearly commencement exercises where he has to “swear in and administer the oath” to graduates and “commission them (the graduates) into the services,” referring to the PMA graduation in March.
Aquino added that sending Secretary Voltaire Gazmin of the Department of National Defense to the alumni homecoming on his behalf is more apt since he is a PMA alumnus.
“I think it would have been appropriate for him (Gazmin) to go to the alumni gathering and for me to attend the (PMA) graduation in March. That way I can attend two activities rather than just attend one,” he explained.
Aquino did not attend the biggest gathering of PMA alumni last Saturday in Baguio City, which some said went against the 100-year-old tradition of presidents speaking before thousands of graduates of the country’s premier military training school.
In 2011, Aquino attended his first PMA alumni homecoming as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.
Aquino was invited last year to become the adopted “mistah” of several PMA classes.
However, the President declined, saying he did not want to “politicize the PMA.”
Aquino’s sisters Ballsy Cruz and Pinky Abellada were adopted as members of PMA Class 1980 in 2011.
Their other two sisters, Victoria Elisa Aquino-Dee and Kristina Bernadette Aquino are adopted members of the same PMA Mapitagan Class ‘80, to which Philippine National Police chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome is an alumnus.
PMA class 1952 is celebrating its diamond jubilee this year; while class 1962 its golden jubilee; and class 1987, its silver jubilee.