At the Fajardo Grandstand inside Fort General Gregorio H. del Pilar in Baguio City, the Philippine Military Academy marked the close of its 2025–2026 intramural season with a formal Sports Achievement Awarding Ceremony and Athletic Show on Tuesday, May 12, 2026 — an occasion that put the spotlight on cadet athletes who distinguished themselves across the eight companies of the Cadet Corps Armed Forces of the Philippines (CCAFP).
Echo Company Claims Overall Championship With Double Title Sweep
Of the eight CCAFP companies that competed throughout the Intramurals 2025–2026 season, Echo Company emerged as the undisputed overall champion, having secured first-place finishes in both major competitive categories used to determine the final standings — the Jurado Cup and Streaming.
The Jurado Cup is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious individual athletic competitions in the PMA’s annual intramural calendar. Streaming, on the other hand, covers a wider range of sporting disciplines and events conducted across the academic year. According to the Academy, Echo Company’s sweep of both categories placed it firmly at the top of the overall standings, making it the dominant athletic unit of the 2025–2026 academic year.
The formal awarding ceremony served as the official venue to confer recognition on both standout individual cadets and top-performing companies, with honors reflecting not just wins in specific events but sustained competitive discipline and team cohesion over the course of an entire season.
PMA Superintendent: Sports Are Fundamental to Military Leadership
PMA Superintendent Vice Admiral Caesar Bernard N. Valencia, PN, addressed the assembled cadets, officers, and guests during the ceremony, framing athletic competition not as a supplementary activity but as a core instrument of officer development.
Vice Admiral Valencia drew a direct line between the qualities forged on the playing field and those demanded in actual military command situations. In his remarks, the PMA Superintendent stated: “In the profession of arms, athletics is more than competition. It is an essential part of leadership formation. Through sports, cadets develop discipline, courage, decisiveness under pressure, teamwork, and fighting spirit necessary for military service.”
His address reinforced the Academy’s institutional stance that competitive athletics and physical development are not peripheral to the PMA’s core mission — they are parallel tracks alongside academic instruction and field training in the preparation of officers fit to lead under pressure. Vice Admiral Valencia’s remarks placed the year’s athletic achievements within this broader framework of professional military readiness.
Baguio Mayor Magalong Challenges Cadets on the Meaning of True Leadership
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong served as Guest of Honor and Speaker at the event. Drawing from his own background in law enforcement and public service before his election to the mayorship, Mayor Magalong used his address to challenge the cadets to adopt a holistic understanding of leadership — one that cannot be reduced to academic achievement alone.
Delivering part of his message in Filipino, Mayor Magalong said: “Sa PMA, malinaw na ang pagiging mahusay na lider ay hindi lamang nasusukat sa talino at kaalaman. Ang tunay na lider ay dapat ding may tibay ng katawan, lakas ng loob, at kahandaan sa anumang hamon.”
In translation, the Mayor emphasized that true leadership at the PMA is measured not by intellect and knowledge alone, but equally by physical toughness, strength of character, and readiness to face any challenge. Mayor Magalong’s message echoed long-established themes in Philippine military education, underscoring the integration of mental, physical, and moral qualities as essential and non-negotiable traits for officers who will one day bear responsibility for the welfare of their personnel and communities.
Awards Reflect PMA’s Multi-Dimensional Approach to Cadet Formation
The Sports Achievement Awarding Ceremony is one component of a broader recognition framework that the PMA uses to evaluate and honor cadets across several performance domains throughout the academic year. According to the Academy, this framework encompasses academic performance, military proficiency, and athletic development — treating all three as equally vital to the holistic formation of future military officers.
The conferment of sports awards, the Academy noted, is a deliberate institutional act that signals the value placed on the resilience, teamwork, mental toughness, and discipline cultivated through competitive athletics. These qualities, the PMA maintains, are as essential to effective military service as the lessons absorbed in classrooms and during field training exercises.
The Athletic Show segment of the program gave cadets an additional opportunity to display physical fitness, coordination, and unit cohesion before the assembled audience — further reinforcing the event’s central message about the indispensable physical dimension of military readiness.
PMA Intramurals: Building Officers Through Competition
The PMA Intramural program is a structured annual competition among the eight companies of the CCAFP, designed to do more than simply test athletic ability. The program is built around the premise that healthy inter-company competition develops leadership, coordination, and strategic thinking — soft skills that translate directly to military command roles.
Each cadet company competes across a range of sporting disciplines over the course of the school year. Overall standings are compiled through a combination of performance metrics, with the Jurado Cup and Streaming results serving as the primary determinants. This extended structure means that the final standings reflect a company’s sustained athletic output and organizational discipline over several months, not just performance in a single event.
The PMA’s intramural structure is consistent with standards observed at military academies internationally, where competitive athletics and rigorous physical training are considered foundational pillars of officer leadership development curricula, operating alongside tactical instruction and academic coursework.
Ceremony Concludes the 2025–2026 Intramural Season at Fort Del Pilar
The Fajardo Grandstand, where the ceremony was held, is situated within Fort General Gregorio H. del Pilar — the official military reservation of the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, Benguet. The venue regularly hosts major PMA ceremonies and institutional events throughout the academic year.
The participation of Baguio City Mayor Magalong as Guest of Honor and Speaker reflected the close and continuing relationship between the city government and the PMA, an institutional partnership that has developed over the Academy’s long history as a fixture of Baguio City’s civic and military landscape.
With the Sports Achievement Awarding Ceremony and Athletic Show 2026 now concluded, the close of the intramural season marks a transition point in the Academy’s calendar. Cadets are expected to return their full focus to the regular academic and military training schedule as they advance through their respective stages of officer development at Fort del Pilar.
Originally reported by: PMA official coverage / wire reports
