AFP gets two new spokespersons

From Malaya (May 6): AFP gets two new spokespersons

ARMED Forces chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista has designated a brigadier general and a major as new mouthpieces of the military, in place of Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos who has been named commander of the Army’s Civil Military Operations Group.

Army Brig. Gen. Domingo Tutaan is the new military spokesman, in concurrent capacity as AFP internal auditor. He is a classmate of Bautista at the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1981.

The new chief of the AFP public affairs office, which was also held by Burgos, is Maj. Ramon Zagala, the assistant chief of staff for civil military operations of the Special Forces Regiment, an elite unit of the Army.

Burgos was designated AFP spokesman and PAO chief in March 2010 by then AFP chief Gen. Delfin Bangit. Burgos went on to serve as PAO chief though the military designated a separate spokesman twice - then Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta and Rear Adm. Jose Miguel Rodriguez. In 2011, the function of AFP spokesman was again given to Burgos, in addition to his job as PAO chief.

Burgos said Tutaan will address the “more pressing issues.” He said Zagala can also make public pronouncements while advising the AFP chief “on matters pertaining to public affairs of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”

Before assuming as AFP internal auditor Tuesday last week, Tutaan was chief of the AFP Human Rights Office.

Tutaan’s post as AFP HRO chief will go Col. Rhoderick Parayno, the outgoing chief of the Army’s Human Rights Office.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/index.php/news/nation/30277-afp-gets-two-new-spokespersons