ANGELES CITY- The shorter the better?
This seems to be the message conveyed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its press release titled “Raising the Standard by Lowering the Height Requirement”.
The release announced that henceforth, equality of height would be the common requirement for Filipino men and women applying in the military.
It also bared reduction of height requirements which used to be a minimum of 5 feet and four inches for men and five feet and two inches for women.
Now, the minimum of five feet for either sex.
“To widen the level of playing field for qualified applicants as soldiers, the Armed Forces of the Philippines decided to lower the height requirement for acceptance of male and female applicants to five feet,” the AFP press release said.
It quoted Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz Jr, Commander of the AFP Civil Relations Service, as saying that “the lowering of height requirement for both genders does not mean that the AFP is also lowering its standards in general.”
Cruz said “height is no longer a strategic requirement for the military as there could be many ‘shorter’ Filipinos with the same amount of commitment, patriotism, raw courage and steely resolve as that of any soldier.”
“Filipinos’ average height is shorter than the western countries. And by opening opportunity to those who are not gifted with height but are equally skilled and competent, we will be increasing the pool of candidates available. Thus, we will also increase the level of quality of new batches of soldiers,” Cruz added.
The release also noted that “the shorter trainees will be exposed to the same standard of training and fundamentals of military rules, etiquette, and traditions. This will ensure that they can be resilient amidst the rigors of training and deployment while sustaining a sound mind and healthy body.”
It noted that afterall, the armed forces today “is no longer all about fighting, but rather, it is also focused on supporting the government’s peace and development programs.”
“For this undertaking, we are enhancing our capability in the fields of information technology, infrastructure, community development and other non-traditional military endeavors where in these lines of work, height is not a factor and in fact irrelevant to the task at hand, ” Cruz added.
This seems to be the message conveyed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in its press release titled “Raising the Standard by Lowering the Height Requirement”.
The release announced that henceforth, equality of height would be the common requirement for Filipino men and women applying in the military.
It also bared reduction of height requirements which used to be a minimum of 5 feet and four inches for men and five feet and two inches for women.
Now, the minimum of five feet for either sex.
“To widen the level of playing field for qualified applicants as soldiers, the Armed Forces of the Philippines decided to lower the height requirement for acceptance of male and female applicants to five feet,” the AFP press release said.
It quoted Brig. Gen. Francisco Cruz Jr, Commander of the AFP Civil Relations Service, as saying that “the lowering of height requirement for both genders does not mean that the AFP is also lowering its standards in general.”
Cruz said “height is no longer a strategic requirement for the military as there could be many ‘shorter’ Filipinos with the same amount of commitment, patriotism, raw courage and steely resolve as that of any soldier.”
“Filipinos’ average height is shorter than the western countries. And by opening opportunity to those who are not gifted with height but are equally skilled and competent, we will be increasing the pool of candidates available. Thus, we will also increase the level of quality of new batches of soldiers,” Cruz added.
The release also noted that “the shorter trainees will be exposed to the same standard of training and fundamentals of military rules, etiquette, and traditions. This will ensure that they can be resilient amidst the rigors of training and deployment while sustaining a sound mind and healthy body.”
It noted that afterall, the armed forces today “is no longer all about fighting, but rather, it is also focused on supporting the government’s peace and development programs.”
“For this undertaking, we are enhancing our capability in the fields of information technology, infrastructure, community development and other non-traditional military endeavors where in these lines of work, height is not a factor and in fact irrelevant to the task at hand, ” Cruz added.
