Bets barred from campaigning during PMA homecoming

Candidates in the May 10 elections who are either regular or adopted members of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) are discouraged from joining the parade during the military's school's alumni homecoming this Saturday in Baguio City. Armed Forces public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said they want to spare the annual event from any political activity related to the coming elections. He said the PMA Alumni Association (PMAAA) recently came up with a resolution discouraging political campaigns during the ceremony that will be held at the PMA grounds. “It stated in the board resolution that PMA classes are discouraged from allowing adopted and regular members who are also candidates from joining them during the parade," he said at a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Thursday. When asked what will the military do in case candidates are caught campaign within the premises of the PMA, Brawner said: “In case they are caught campaigning, we can talk to them and ask them to stop their activity. We can warn them that that’s prohibited." Among the candidates adopted by PMA classes who are running in the elections include presidential aspirants Sen. Manny Villar (Nacionalista Party) and former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (Lakas-Kampi-CMD). Villar is an adopted member of the PMA class 1977, while Teodoro is an adopted member of the PMA class 1976. Vice presidential aspirants Loren Legarda (NP) and Mar Roxas (Liberal Party) are also honorary members of the PMA class 1984 and 1969, respectively. Re-electionist senator Jinggoy Estrada is an adopted member of the PMA class 1972. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is running for Congress in Pampanga, is also an adopted member of the PMA class 1978. Among the PMA graduates who are running in the elections are former Armed Forces vice chief and now Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita (PMA ’57), former AFP chief now Sen. Rodolfo Biazon (PMA ’61) and former AFP chief now Presidential Management Staff head Hermogenes Esperon (PMA ’74). Ermita, Biazon and Esperon are running for Congress in Batangas, Taguig and Pangasinan, respectively. - KBK, GMANews.TV