9th National Debate Championship

The Academy will be hosting this year's 9th National Debate Championship. Being part of the organization that spearheads the hosting of this event, I was tasked to come up with the website to advertise this event. I am proud to announce that the website is now online for those who wish to know how are the preparations for this event. This is also an advance information for schools who wish to participate. Just click on the link below

9th National Debate Championship

Enjoy!!!

The lives that reverberate

I did not expect things to happen this fast, another one of my upperclass is dead in Sulu this time the person is closer to my heart.

With the life that we live here, living in constant interaction, force to socialize, people do stick to us and without our knowing we develop a kind of connection that perhaps makes up for the kind of brotherhood thing obvious among PMA graduates. In Sulu right now, there are countless of possibilities. The soldiers fighting there right now might be someone that I used to share a table with, someone who scolded me for doing something wrong, someone I simply know.The truth of the matter is, I do not want to know who is there, I'm afraid.

This morning another deafening silence came inside the mess hall. Before we were to take our breakfast, the First Captain announced: "Let us offer a one minute prayer to the late... so and so, of PMA class so and so... who died in an encounter yesterday in Sulu." In two consecutive breakfasts two of my upperclass are dead.

A friend of mine said: "But if i go on and ponder much on losing life and losing them, I'll just end up hating life." She is right but thinking about the people that we've lost in the past days, I really can't help it but ponder. Ponder on the fact that it was just yesterday that they wore the same uniform as I am wearing. I can't help but ask why them of all the many soldiers out there. And the most frightening, I'll be there in seven months. Yet I do not want to hate life. I love life and I will live it. The fear in me keeps on telling me things, yet I know I am where I should be.

People die even if they do not fight in Sulu. Although the thought can be promising the fact that they die is not that promising at all. Perhaps there is not promise. If it's your time it will be your time and not even an avoidance of war changes that. I am expecting the situation to escalate in the next coming days. Now with two more battalions conducting combat operations it will become dirty. More of my upperclassmen will come (I heard our new graduates who were assigned in Luzon are being recalled to be sent to Mindanao) and I know, even if I do not want to, some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice. Their names will reverberate in my head every time the dreaded one minute prayer will be done in their honor. But then this is the life that God gave me and in seven months time, I just might find myself side by side with them. My prayer is that I will be ready when that time comes.

The lives of those who perished is never wasted for their spirit lives on telling me and I hope all others that life is but a mere expression of the purpose we are set out to do. My life will be just like that hoping that my fate will be good to me. Let us keep on praying to all the soldiers fighting for this country. Someday, I know we will all understand it.

The lives of those who fought

The words are still echoing inside my head as I remember how he used to read the publication inside the mess hall about 6 months ago. In one instant, he was gone.

Last night, a sad news enveloped the whole Corps of Cadets. Our previous Brigade Adjutant, who graduated last March, was one of the fatalities in the latest clash against the muslim rebels in Sulu. As we were trying to confirm the news, we realized, life slips that FAST.

It will seem that for most of us, we have embraced the reality of death. When asked about questions concerning this topic, we proudly say that everybody is bound to die, I would rather die fighting for my country. Such was the case of our upperclass, but in the real sense, when reality has settled, it is not as simple as dying. To say that its that simple is a mockery of the hope and spirit we invested in our training, the idealism that we have cultivated, and of course the perseverance we mustered.

When people read today's news, they will dismiss it as another of those usual occurence about rebels being engaged in a firefight with our armed forces. Today, as I try to read the news, I remember a voice whose command I used to heed when he begins his sonata of orders while we conduct our weekly parades. I try to remember how I used to give this person the salute that he truly deserves everytime our paths cross. I try to remember the idealism that we both shared and cultivated inside the very halls that I am now. In an instant all of those will just be memories, happy memories I suppose.

As the lyrics of one song we sing here in the Academy would put it:

"And when the taps shall sound for men

Banners drape my last remains

Let singing comrades bury me

To the echo of these strains"

Let us remember the lives of those who fought for this country. The job is hard but someone has to do it... Let's go ARMY

Random thoughts

A moment in time is a moment lost in eternity. A gasp of air is one chance at life. In a person's lifetime there are moments that would seem to be lost in an instant. Sometimes we take notice and sometimes we do not. How many chances do we get in a lifetime?

In my life there have been memories that keep on coming back. Memories that I wish to remember because for some reason I will not be able to get a taste of it again. Usually, these memories are either my firsts and my lasts. There are also times when we feel that we are into something that will not happen again. What I regret the most is not taking notice that such events will have a lasting impact on me. Have I known, I would have paid attention to every detail and savored it.

Perhaps we really do not know. I mean, if we live our life always looking for those moments then we would not be enjoying that moment enough for it to become a lasting memory. It can then be said that these memories only became such because of the simple reason that they are GONE. The question then is: Do we really have to wait for the time that it is gone?

Is value an end to a thing lost? Do we really know how valuable something is when it is still not list? Should we risk it?

These are random thoughts, insights that are borne of a stormy weather and a wondering heart. A thought that came from a longing heart wondering if the things that I value are those that really matter. Again... I will never know.

Lessons that are only learned by living it.

My head is already aching trying to digest all the ideas that I have been reading about Military Theorists for a paper that I will submit next week. Blogging is a cure

The past days can be described as both tiring and surprising. I have decided to start doing all the things that I have been neglecting for the past days. I am not yet done with my paper, then I have another paper for Friday plus the website for an event we will be hosting by October. I know I can cope up I just do not know how tired I will be.

The thing that keeps me excited now are events that I did not know was possible. One may have observed the overtures that I have been writing about some person wishing that she'll read it. Of course, that was wishful thinking. At the back of my mind, I was hoping for something that included more of an interaction rather than my constant imagination of things that may not come. I have come to the point of just letting it be and not worrying much about all the things that are happening with that stuff. If truth be told, I have become passive and just heeding the instances when I feel that I miss her. Of course, I can not really say that I miss her as in miss her. How can it be possible when I barely know her? But then I have to admit, that in as much as I try to deny things within me, the thought lingers and honestly, it feels good in my system. I really did not understand, I was just thinking that in some distant future I will, I was merely hoping... just as I always do.

I prayed hard, ignored the negative thoughts that came to me and went on. I was believing that it was a matter of trusting God for the good things. How do I write something that I do not wish to be revealed yet feel that I have to write it? Let me put it this way, in our life we find reasons that we do not understand. We cling to it and hope that in some distant future the time will come when it will make sense. Some give up, for my part I just did not know what else to do, so I continued to believe. Right now, I still cling to that belief, to that hope. In some distant future I know I will understand. Life is unfolding in my midst revealing to me valuable lessons that can only learned by living it.