FORT DEL PILAR, BAGUIO City—Only one female cadet will join this year’s top graduates of the Philippine Military Academy next week.

But when Cadet First Class Me-Ann Sinson of PMA “Baghawi” (Bagong Halaw ng Lahi or new breed of leaders) Class of 2008 receives the honor of graduating No. 3, she will be wearing her hair far longer than the female cadets who first graduated in 1997.

Chalk that up to the newly liberated world of a unisex military.

According to Maj. Gen. Leopoldo Maligalig, PMA superintendent, female cadets are now allowed to wear their hair long because people used to mistake them for men.

In 1993, Capt. Arlene Orejana-Trillanes, one of the first female graduates, was required to keep her hair from reaching her shoulders. But female cadets today can have hair long enough for a ponytail, provided they groom themselves well, Maligalig said.

Reproductive health

Male cadets have also begun familiarizing themselves with reproductive health courses to enlighten them about their female counterparts.

A pep squad of female cadets have joined cheer-dancing competitions.

Maligalig said he had asked a women’s group to act as surrogate sisters for the female cadets. “These cadets need ‘ate’ (big sisters) to discuss women’s issues, like marriage,” he said.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has bent backward for the female cadets because they have performed “much better than their male counterparts,” he said. The equal opportunity law (Republic Act No. 7192) allows the PMA to recruit females.

In the last 11 years, three female cadets have topped their classes. They are Navy Ensign Arlene de la Cruz of Class 1999, Army 2nd Lt. Tara Velasco of Class 2003 and 2nd Lt. Andrelee Mojica of Class 2007.

Velasco now teaches at the academy.

Many female cadets have also signed up because of the celebrity status the PMA confers on women in the 21st century.

Cadet First Class Charito Casaclang of Baghawi Class of 2008 is the third in her family to graduate from the academy. She said she was 5 when Orejana, wife of jailed Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, and 17 other women first joined in 1993. Trillanes is a member of PMA Class 1995.

Her siblings in the military are Bienvenido of Class 1992, who joined the Philippine Air Force, and Brendo of Class 1993 who joined the Philippine Navy.

No. 3 cum laude

“The female cadets are very well selected,” Maligalig said, adding that this accounts for their good performance in the PMA. “We have to congratulate them for just being here. In the PMA, women show the way,” he said.

Sinson, 22, of Bagumbayan in Ligao City, Albay, is graduating No. 3, cum laude. She will receive the Secretary of National Defense saber.