By Mortz C. Ortigoza
The court martial’s conviction of Army Lt.
Colonel Hector Maraña, treasurer of the cadets of the Philippine Military
Academy, his eventual dismissal from the service, and his trip to the slammer
in Muntinlupa as ordered recently by President Rodrigo Duterte could
probably answer the complaints of Filipino foreign military cadets in the U.S
particularly at the United States Military Academy and South Korea about their
deprived allowances the PMA owed them.
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| Cashiered Army Lt. Colonel Hector Maraña |
In my previous column’s Filipino
Cadets BareSad Plights at West Point I wrote that USMA
Second Class Cadet Jesson Peñaflor whined that he and his fellow-
West Point, New York based cadet have to pay each $2,000 (P105, 270.00) their
education and training supplies and equipment at USMA before they trudge their
four years military and academic courses.
A Filipino in a military academy in South Korea
wrote: “We are 15 here in Korea, sir. Three cadets are sent to the army
air force and the naval academy (sic) every year here, sir and three are at the
language institute studying the required language, sir. There are also cadets
in Japan, Australia and Canada, sir. Every one of us are experiencing the same
thing, sir but for the service we want to give in the future we are trying to
keep ourselves firm and strong so none of us will even think of quitting and
leaving the service,” one of the 15 cadets, who asked for anonymity, said.
