A BALANCED mind, body and spirit perhaps is the ultimate soldier that we need in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine Military Academy is trying to achieve or has been doing that to its Cadet Corps Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Each cadet is honed to be an intelligent and physically strong ladies and gentlemen who would become officers of the AFP and maybe future leaders of this great country.
Inside the academy, a cadet must have balance mind, body and soul as each three aspects are honed through rigorous training, academic challenges and to include the test of being away from family and pitted outside their comfort zone. With this "many are called but few are chosen" that in the four years of stay inside PMA, a significant number of cadets would quit or go out of the academy, failing to find balance in their stint of graduating inside "premier military education institution in Asia."
A cadet only needs to complete his academics and military training in order to graduate and become 2nd lieutenants or ensigns joining Army, Air Force and Navy, respectively. But PMA aims for excellence in both academic and military training, thus, yielding cadets with exceptional academic grades amidst the lack of time struggling to fulfill all duties and many other activities.
Aside from academic awards, the athletic saber is one award that highlights the athletic prowess of a cadet.
For this year, a male and a female become recipients of the coveted Athletic Saber Award as a symbol of athletic superiority among the ladies and gentlemen of the graduating class.
The significance of the award is not just excelling in one sport but a collective performance of one's stint for four years of being a cadet and showing skills in every sport he can play in, in addition, one big contributor for achieving the award is the physical fitness test performances in their years of stay as a cadet in PMA.
Cadette 1st Class Kimberly Joy Saliw-an Baculi of Kalinga, and Cadet 1st Class Nicolas Crisanto Raguine Guysayko of Camarines Sur will receive the award as the best male and female athlete of their graduating class.
They both are athletes playing, competing and excelled in several sport like marathon, triathlon, taekwondo, judo, arnis, jiutjitsu, and swimming, respectively, to say the least inside and outside PMA.
As representatives of their graduating class, what makes them special is not how many sports they play but amidst the numerous academics and military requirements and activities as cadet, they still exhume greatness in sports.
So what makes them exceptional? It's their feat to exercise balance to survive the four years of rigorous cadetship and graduate as ladies and gentlemen joining the noble profession of Arms.
To the PMA Mabalasik Class of 2019 who gave it all and finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel, Congratulations!!!!! God Bless!