President Arroyo has ordered the release of P125 million from her social fund to finance housing projects for disabled soldiers and families of military officers who were killed in combat.

Mrs. Arroyo said the amount, the biggest release from the presidential social fund since she took office in 2001, would have some 1,000 beneficiaries.

?This will be for housing assistance for over a thousand disabled soldiers and families of those killed in action to whom we will give P180,000 each,? she said during the graduation rites of the Philippine Military Academy Masiglahi (Mandirigmang Sigaw ng Lahi) Class 2009 in Baguio City yesterday.

The class is composed of 184 cadets, 100 of whom will be assigned to the Philippine Army, 37 to the Philippine Air Force and 47 to the Philippine Navy.

President Arroyo also congratulated the graduating class, whom she said represents ?a new breed of military officers equally adept in battle field as in community building.?

?The name you have chosen responds to the call of the people for soldiers willing to make sacrifices to protect the people and our Constitution, and uphold our sovereignty, and join the main catalysts for national development,? she said.

The class valedictorian, Cadet First Class Karl Cacanindin, received the Presidential Saber and the Presidential Achievement Award for Academic Excellence.

Cacanindin, who graduated magna cum laude, also received the Philippine Air Force Saber, Athletic Saber, Mathematics and Natural Science Plaque, and the Jusmag Award from the Philippine Air Force. Joyce Pangco Pa?ares