First female PMA alumna rises to Army brigadier general

BAGUIO CITY — One of the first female graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and its first female summa cum laude has been promoted to Army Brigadier General.

Army Brig. Gen. Leah Lorenzo Santiago was accorded arrival honors at the military school’s Sundial on Tuesday after receiving her one rank bump-up along with 12 other promoted generals at Camp Aguinaldo on Monday, said Navy Lt. Commander Jesse Nestor Saludo, head of the PMA information office, in a statement on Thursday.

Santiago was appointed as PMA Commandant of Cadets and credited as the first female officer to occupy that post, as well as head of Tactics Group, during an October 17 ceremony at PMA.

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READ: PMA’s first female cadet commandant to uphold academy standardsThat ceremony became a de facto reunion of officials from the Kalasag Lahi Class of 1997, as well as some of the first female cadets who did not complete their training.

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PMA superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael Logico credited at the time Santiago as Brigadier General-designate and the academy’s first female graduate to reach that rank. 

The first female officer to be promoted to Brigadier General was Ramona Go, who retired in 2013 and ran successfully for mayor of San Enrique, Iloilo. She was serving as Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel at the time of her early retirement. /coa