DISARMING THE ARMY

NOT even in his wildest imagination did Cadet Giovanni Carlo Bacordo fancy the event taking place. Cadet Bacordo stood a good 15 meters away from President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. The distance did not blur his senses. He saw her every step, heard her every word. When it was over, Cadet Bacordo gushed and grinned. “Wow, she looked nice”.

She who looked nice and left Cadet Bacordo bubbling had also swept Cadet Rommel Ong off his feet. The pleasant experience had overwhelmed him, it was obvious. Cadet Ong suppressed a smile, paused for some seconds, searched for the right word and finally settled for a restrained, “It was a… ahhh … ahhh… very nice salute (for a woman).”

Never before has a single person charmed and disarmed the cadets as did their President and Commander-in-Chief, Her Excellency Corazon Aquino last Saturday morning, March 22, in Baguio City during the 81st graduation rites of the Philippine Military Academy.

Dressed in a sunshine bright yellow suit with floral callado on the sleeves and a comfortable, two-inch heeled leather pumps, President Aquino marched, stood on the dais and raised her palm above yellow-rimmed eyeglasses in a smart salute seven times during the parade in her honor. More salutes would follow, one each for the 174 graduates. While it was not a perfect one by military standards, the snappy salute won rounds of approval.

The dazzling salute did not come easy. She spent half of graduation eve drilling herself with the must-do elbow exercise. Aided by file-video tapes on military ceremonies borrowed from general headquarters, she practised tirelessly until she got it right.

Cadets Bacordo and Ong, who were not members of the graduating class, both expressed surprise: “We waited for her just to nod or wave her hand,” as what was told the graduates during the graduation dry run.  “She surprised us,” they exclaimed.

Callado (the embroidery design on her sleeves) and chaku (the cadets plumed hat) also made a fascinating combination as President Aquino strode from the dais beside Chief-of-Staff Gen. Fidel Ramos to the cadets she commissioned as second lieutenants, then back to the dais. At one point, President Aquino faltered, and seemed at a loss where to make a turn. Gen. Ramos stretched out his right arm to the direction, but did not touch her elbow. The band played “Ang Dalagang Pilipina”, as President Aquino broke into a grin then waved her arm.

Before the excited, cheering crowd, President Aquino later stepped a few rungs off a moveable wooden ladder, holding on the carved railings, then onto the red velvet wrapped support of the military jeep which took her and Gen. Ramos to the attentive troops. As the jeep revved to life, the band played “When you are in love”.

No matter if the Commander-in-Chief wore a skirt, she never, for a moment in her speech, skirted issues. Exactly 25 days after she was installed as the seventh president of the Republic, President Aquino showed she can be tough. And she made clear she is boss.

Gen. Ramos introduced her as “the epitome of Filipino womanhood” with “soldiery qualities” whose “uncompromising yet compassionate” mind makes her a “tough battle fighter”.

In a ten-page speech she read with riveting authority after a soldier had attached the presidential seal to the rostrum, President Aquino said, “I, as your Commander-in-Chief” (five times to be sure the soldiers got her message). She spiced her forceful language with “let me be frank with you”. And once, her head held high, eyes straight to the cadets in rapt attention, she announced: “Let me be clear about one thing: I mean to fulfill my responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief.”

Gone was the wifely, tiresome monotone and references to husband Ninoy, the staple of her campaign speeches. She was a woman unto herself.

But she did hint, graciously though, that she was tired of the ceremonial salutes. After some 50 or so cadet graduates had given her their due respect, President Aquino turned to Gen. Ramos, her eyes begging “how many more to go?” She was a hundred salutes away, of course, and five more PMA graduations to go before her term as president is over.

As man of the hour, the lady president outshadowed the traditional star of the day, the class valedictorians. This year, the honors went to cadet First Class Albert I. Gapay of Proj. 3, Quezon City, who received the coveted Presidential Saber and nine other awards for his excellent performance in the academy.

Cadets Bacordo and Ong agreed with the Commander-in-Chief’s every word. Cadet Ong, 22, admitted there was a time he felt cynical about a military career. “We are not blind to what was happening in the AFP. They say we are too young, but we are also sensitive.”

Cadet Ong is the editor of the academy’s monthly, The Corps. He said he had always wanted to join the PMA, but his father, himself a product of the PMA and now a Navy captain discouraged him in many ways. Cadet Ong took the PMA exams while in his first year of Political Science at the University of the Philippines. Graduating next year, Cadet Ong sees President Aquino as the embodiment of the PMA ideals.

Cadet Bacordo wanted to become a soldier ever since he could remember. At 22, Cadet Bacordo is the incoming regimental commander. He was a second year Industrial Engineering student in UP-Iloilo when he chucked civilian life for a military career.

The Aquino assassination, they said, hit them slowly. “It eroded our spirits. We felt very bad that the military was implicated. We had this nagging thought. Are we going to waste four years of our lives here? Where do we go when we graduate? The people don’t like us.”

Thus it did boost the two cadets’ spirits that the lady Commander-in-Chief herself has instituted policies of purging the army. “We have been taught idealism here,” said Cadet Bacordo. “President Aquino’s objectives are the same as ours,” added Cadet Ong.

In her closing statement, President Aquino said:” . . . for the Armed Forces whether loyalist or rebel, who now stand behind the flag and the Constitution, the worst is over. Whatever must be faced, we will face it together: you and I and the people. Once more you are back where you have longed to be: on the side of the people. Welcome home, my soldiers.”