Son of QC vendor, PWD tops PMA Class 2025

A 23-year-old man from Quezon City defied all odds to emerge as the valedictorian of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Siklab-Laya Class of 2025.

- By MARTIN SADONGDONG

Cadet First Class Jessie Jr. Ticar will graduate as summa cum laude of the Class Siklab-Laya (Sundalong Isinilang na Kasangga at Lakas ng Ating Bayan para sa Kalayaan).

Ticar is one of only four cadets who accomplished the feat in the 127-year history of the PMA and has the highest grade point average.

The other summa cum laude graduates in the Baguio City-based school were in 1985, 1997, and 2021.

"I came from a not well-off family to the point that I needed to be the one to make a way for me to support my studies," Ticar said during the presentation of the Top 10 performing cadets of PMA Class 2025 in Fort del Pilar in Baguio City on Wednesday, May 7.

Ticar is the youngest among three siblings. His mother sells ballpens and envelopes in Quezon City while his father, a former taxi driver, became a Person with a Disability (PWD) after suffering from an illness six years ago. This led to him to lose his job.

"The most challenging part of my life before entering the academy is the financial constraint that my family (experienced)," he said, adding that lifting his family out of poverty is his primary motivation in joining the PMA.

But it was not an easy journey for Ticar inside the country's premier military training institution as he needed to change his ways from an undergraduate student at the Polytechnic College of the Philippines (PUP)-Manila to a military cadet.