PMA studying military's new height requirement

FORT DEL PILAR, Baguio City, Philippines – Brig. Gen. Nonato Peralta, commandant of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) here, disclosed that officials are studying if they could admit shorter cadets to the premier military school after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) adopted a new height requirement to enlist shorter soldiers.

The PMA only admits cadets that are 5’4” for males and 5’2” for females.

Peralta said they would review the PMA guidelines and if lowering the height requirement won’t affect PMA standards they might change the required height limit for cadets.

He said the PMA has not completely rejected the idea of admitting shorter cadets and would consider the AFP policy to recruit personnel who are only five-foot tall.

“We have to study the factors,” he said.

The AFP has defended its decision to start accepting male and female applicants who are only five-foot (1.52-meter) tall.

The Department of National Defense approved the amendment to the height requirement for soldiers in 2009.

The previous minimum height requirement was 5’4” for males and 5’2” for females.

“The lowering of the height requirement for both genders does not mean that the AFP is also lowering its standards in general. For one, the Filipinos’ average height is shorter than in Western countries,” said Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz, chief of the AFP-Civil Relations Service.

Cruz said height is no longer a strategic requirement for the military as there could be many shorter Filipinos with the same degree of commitment, patriotism, raw courage and steely resolve as that of any soldier.

PMA superintendent Vice Admiral Leonardo Calderon said this year’s PMA graduating class – the 226-strong Masidlak Class of 2010 – has an average height of 5’7” for males and that even the 31 females in the class are tall.

The Masidlak (Mandirigmang Sibol ng Dakilang Lahing Kayumanggi) is one of the PMA batches with the brightest students, including three “Starman” honorees for academic excellence.

The PMA batch last year failed to produce a single Starman and the rare feat of having three Starman honorees in a PMA class was made in the 1990s.