PMA Baguio – Philippine Military Academy

For the past 100 years, the officers training  school of the Armed Forces in the Philippines has made Baguio City its home. 

The Philippine Military Academy (PMA) boasts of a long and illustrious history of preparing only the best Filipino men –and in recent times, women–  for military service.

History

The PMA traces its roots back to the Academia Militar (Spanish, “Military Academy”) that was founded on 25 October 1898 in Malacos, Bulacan, Philippines during the administration of President Emilio Aguinaldo.

Unfortunately, due to increasing hostilities between the Filipino and the invading Americans, the Academia Militar had to close on 20 January 1899, after just four months of operation.

Baguio PMA Tank 2


Then in 1905, during the period of American colonial rule, a Philippine Constabulary Officers’ School was set up in Intramuros (the old walled city of Manila).

In 1908 this School was relocated to Baguio – at Constabulary Hill (later renamed Camp Henry T. Allen).

Located at Fort Gegorio del Pilar on Loakan Road, visitors are welcome to explore the grounds, view the cadets performing their drills, and explore the PMA museum and walk around its manicured grounds to see vintage tanks and other historical military weapons.

PMA is full of tradition and pageantry. There are drill exhibitions on weekends, alumni homecoming and celebrations in February and graduation ceremonies at the end of the school year. The manicured grounds are open to the public all year round.

How to Get to PMA

By car — pass through wooded Loakan Road past a fork in the road (to the right will be Loakan Airport), keep going straight until you see the Fort Gregorio del Pilar gate on your right. About 10 km from Burnham Park and Session Road.

By taxi cab — when visitors contract a taxi cab for a day tour of the city, PMA is usually included in the itinerary. One may also take a cab to PMA and back to tour the grounds by car and partially on foot.

By jeepney — take the Plaza-Loakan-PMA jeepney from the Central Business District.

Interesting and worth remembering features of PMA

Getting up the higher grounds, you will be surprised to have personal encounters with cadets, who will surely be waving a friendly glance at all visitors, seemingly, welcoming them saying, this is our home, welcome everyone!

The tree house adventure, a sit at the ground and snapshots along the nicely shaped curves are only few of the simple ways of finding the joy of visiting the place. A peek at its Borromeo Field helps us understand the excitement that every cadet keeps with his/her family. It is actually a revelation that they did not come here just to be trained for a selfish goal but to give themselves freely for the love of the country. This place has tanks, fighter planes and a helicopter for show. You can climb on the tough tanks as much as you like. But you cannot go close to the planes and helicopter, understandably. The place has a few training buildings and gardens. You can watch the tourists sauntering around and the military student jogging.

PMA Directory

Address: Philippine Military Academy, Fort Del Pilar, Baguio City Philippines 2602


Telephone No : (074) 442-5520 /(074) 447-3690