BAGUIO CITY—As is wont to happen on graduation days, a touching life drama occurred on Sunday at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) commencement exercises.
The newly minted topnotcher of Class “Mabalasik,” Lt. Dionne Mae Apolog Umalla, got her fond wish to see her long-separated parents share in her triumph.
The father who long ago left them sat side by side with her mother as proud parents on her big day.
In her valedictory speech, Umalla went through the usual niceties, thanking all—her teachers, officers, other fellow cadets. She also recalled how four years ago, she and her classmates stood for the first time on Borromeo Field with only a dream, speaking in a confident voice.
Then she spoke from a personal note, and, for once, the “mabalasik” [fierce in Filipino] broke down from an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. “Datoyen, Mama [This is it],” she said.
While she thanked her father for coming to honor her achievement, it was her mother Dionisia Umalla that she thanked effusively. “This is for you, Mama. I love you very much,” she said, as the camera panned toward her mother who waved and smiled, while her daughter was addressing her.
Beside her was her father Reuben, beaming proudly.
In an earlier interview, Umalla, who hails from Alilem, Ilocos Sur, disclosed that she was only in grade 2 when her father left them. “But I feel close to him anyway,” she said, adding that she remembers happy times with him.
Her mother, now a retired school teacher, taught her not to be bitter. More than that, she struggled to raise her and her three brothers alone. Umalla repaid this devotion by consistently getting her mother onstage to pin her medals as valedictorian. When she first learned she was finishing on top of her PMA class, her first reaction was that she was thrilled that her mother would once again be on stage.
When she was admitted to the PMA, her one wish was to see her father on recognition day, which his older brother fulfilled by finding him. “ I just embraced him with joy,” she said. Somehow the graduation news reached him and he came to hug once more the daughter he had left as a child.
Image credits: PHOTO FROM PNA