Bongao, Tawi-Tawi – Eight home-grown Tawi-Tawi students passed the 2010 Philippine Military Entrance Examination given last August 29, 2010 at Datu Amirbahar Jaafar Convention Center in MSU Prep High Campus.
The Philippine Military Academy Cadet Qualification Test (PMACQT) is considered to be the toughest exams in its category where mortality is highest at only 15% or less passing percentage. This year’s record showed that only 1,195 takers made it out of 8,007 applicants all over the country. One hundred twenty (120) applicants from different schools in Tawi-Tawi took the exam.
Of the eight qualifiers from Tawi-Tawi one female student from Science High School named Rose Ann M. Villarin passed the exam. The rest includes Nurwaylid Ikkao Askalani, Abdel-Aziz Abdurahim and Kevin Angelo Pon, all of them senior students of MSU Science High. Midzuan Hamis Omar is a senior student at MSU Prep High. Geoffrey Peta Cata-an and Ar-Mher Alih Ismah are both 2nd and third year BS Computer Science students respectively enrolled in MSU-Tawi-Tawi College of Technology & Oceanography. Mohammad Ishmael Jamahari Jamiri is also a product of MSU Science High and is currently enrolled in College in Zamboanga City.
‘I’m so proud of our youngsters who passed the PMAEE’, said Tawi-Tawi Governor Hji. Sadikul Sahali when asked for comment on this matter. ‘This is a milestone in our history not only making Bongao (Tawi-Tawi), starting this year, as one of the 35 PMA Examination centers in the country but also dismiss the notion that we are at the bottom in terms of literacy rate in the country. ‘Eight passers’ is already a huge success considering that there were centers who didn’t register even a single passer,’ the governor stressed. ‘Hopefully we can increase the number by next year and years to come so we can have more PMA officers in the AFP’.
The successful conduct of the exam in Bongao is largely attributed to the Office of the Provincial Governor with whom an Oversight Committee was created to plan, facilitate, assist and disseminate the information on the conduct of examination. The committee, chaired by Prof. Johnny Lee, went further by organizing review sessions ‘open to all applicants for free’ and held a ‘mock exam or trial test’ not only to familiarize the takers with the type of exam but also to simulate awareness ‘to follow the correct instruction’ which is the hallmark of a military-type of examination. Prof. Lee was ably supported by committee member Capt. Erick Kagaoan (PMA Class 87) of Task Force 62 who offered and shared his expertise by giving lecture/orientation on what to expect in the examination. Three teachers from Science High School were tapped by the committee to provide the review on Science, Mathematics and English which is the core subject mentioned in the PMA exam forms. Lt. Col. Fatima Irene Tillah Rasul, MNSC (Res.) was also in town as PMAEE Coordinator for Region IX and ARMM. She was the one who provided the materials for the mock examination.
‘It was really the concerted effort of the oversight committee members as well as the all-out support of the Governor that led to the successful conduct of the exam’, Lee emphasized. ‘Tuly the exam is so tough and without good planning to guide our applicants it will be extremely difficult to pass it’, he added. Prof. Lee is the father of soon-to-be captain 1st Lieutenant John Robert H. Lee, a member PMA Class of 2004. Lt. Lee is currently assigned in Baloi, Lanao del Norte as Philippine Army Artillery Commander. (JRL-TTM)
