http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudaily...rticle_id=912648 new marine recruits leave for Ternate, Cavite By Chito O. Aragon
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 11:51am (Mla time) 09/28/2007
CEBU CITY, Philippines - A 22-year-old man from Argao town, Cebu was undaunted with the beheading of the 14 Marines in Basilan and still finds himself lucky to be one of the 68 new Philippine Marine recruits.
The new Marine recruits took their oath yesterday inside Camp Lapu-Lapu, headquarters of the Armed Forces Central Command.
After the oathtaking ceremony, Jyneer Bajenting along with the rest of the new Marines yesterday took a C130 for the Marine Training Center in Tarnate, Cavite, where they would train for six months before getting deployed to Palawan, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.
Bajenting told Cebu Daily News that the beheading of the 14 Marines did not discourage him and others in joining the force.
“We will just pray to the Lord that nothing bad will happen to us,” Bajenting said in Cebuano.
His being a soldier has the full support of his parents.
Bajenting, who is a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology graduate, said he was lucky to have been one of the 68 who passed the examination and survived the training.
Mobile Recruiting Team 1st Lt. Prisco Tabo Jr. said that of the 3,060 who passed the examination, 580 applicants came from the Visayas and Mindanao area. Of the 3,060, 68 went on to survive the training.
Bajenting said that his dearest ambition as a young boy was to become a police officer. His sister is a member of the Cebu City police.
But his failure to pass the entrance examination of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) paved the way for him to instead try for the Marines.
“Ni-take ko kaduha sa Napolcom examination pero wa ko kapasar (I took the Napolcom examination twice but I failed),” Bajenting said.
But when I tried for the Marines, everything went smoothly, he said.
Before they left for the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City, the relatives of the 68 new recruits hugged and waved them a tearful goodbye.