‘… and if you think about it, wouldn’t it be ideal for a flier from Ilocandia to be chief pilot of a president from Ilocandia?’
GENARO “Gene” C. Menor was born the eldest in a brood of four. His mother, Norma dela Cruz, a devoted housewife, was from Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan while his father, Herminigildo, was a rank-and-file miner at Benguet Corporation who traced his roots to Calasiao, also in Pangasinan.
Growing up in Itogon, Benguet, young Gene aspired to become a lawyer rather than a miner. But fate had different plans for him.
In 1990, he decided to apply for admission to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). Four years later, he graduated magna cum laude, number 1 (valedictorian) of the 1994 “Bantay Laya” class of 241 cadets. A year earlier, with the closure of Benguet Corporation, Gene’s family had returned to Calasiao where his father took up farming.
Because of his sterling academic and non- academic achievements, he was chosen to revive the Jacobo Zobel Award which entitled him to take a four-year course at the prestigious Asian Institute of Management, all expenses paid. He finished with a degree of Masters in Business Management with a major in Finance. In 2017, he obtained a Masters in Stargell Security Studies from the National Defense University in Washington DC, attended the Senior Executive Fellow program of Harvard in 2020, and is currently attending the LEAD Program of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Gene is one of many PMA graduates who have been given the opportunity to take further studies in business through scholarships. But many of his fellow PMA graduates take advantage of this additional learning by leaving after at least eight years of service in our Armed Forces, with the private sector benefitting from their passion and expertise. What distinguishes Gene is that he remains an active officer of our Air Force, 28 years after graduating from the Academy.
He was assigned to the Presidential Airlift Wing and flew then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2005 until 2010. He also flew former President Benigno Aquino III for a year before being transferred to the office of Financial Management of the PAF in Villamor.
He admits that there was a time in 2011 when he was planning to join a local airline. But his finance boss in the PAF asked him to stay just one extra year, and he ended up staying another eleven. Today, as deputy wing commander for Eastern Mindanao with a base in Davao, he remains as committed to the service as he was when he kept his head down during his plebe year just so that he could survive the first year at the Academy.
This, despite all my cajoling that he should move to the private sector.
But if I know Gene, the desk job is not for him. Flying is in his veins — and if you think about it, wouldn’t it be ideal for a flier from Ilocandia to be the chief pilot of a president from Ilocandia?
