MANILA, Philippines — After months of absence from the Senate, one of Senator Ronald dela Rosa’s first official acts was to nominate his mistah and fellow former police general Mao Aplasca as Senate Sergeant-at-Arms.
It would not be the first time Dela Rosa, who led the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the start of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, had vouched for his Philippine Military Academy (PMA) classmate.
“I knew personally General Aplasca since we were both members of Philippine Military Academy Class of ’86, but unluckily he graduated in 1987,” said Dela Rosa in July 2025, at the opening of the 20th Congress.
Luck was quick to find Aplasca in the PNP, at least after his mistah was appointed top cop in 2016, and members of the 1986 class quickly became the ruling class in the PNP. Despite being turned back – or “delayed by a year,” in PMA parlance – he went on to hold key posts until he retired in 2019 as a three-star general.
Ties run deep
