President Duterte set to choose Navy’s top leader for first time

From Update.ph (Nov 2): President Duterte set to choose Navy’s top leader for first time

Philippine Navy (PN) flag-in-officer-in-command Vice Admiral Caesar Taccad will formally retire from the service this coming Nov. 13 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56. Taccad, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1982, will bow out of the PN after 34 years of service.

This is going to be the first time President Rodrigo Duterte will choose the Navy’s top leader.

Turn-over ceremony for Taccad’s successor is tentatively scheduled on November 12, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said.

Possible replacements for Taccad are Western Command head Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado and a member of PMA Class 1983; PN vice commander Rear Admiral Rafael G. Mariano, a member of PMA Class of 1984; Philippine Fleet commander Rear Admiral Gaerlan, another member of PMA Class of 1984 and Naval Education and Training Command head Rear Admiral Narciso Vingson, a member of PMA Class of 1985.

“Whoever becomes the next Flag Officer in Command among this list of very senior and competent flag officers of the Philippine Navy will surely serve our purpose well,” Arevalo said.

“They are all seasoned commanders and managers. They have gone all through the billets in the Philippine Navy from junior command at sea to their respective designations as staff and then other management positions as they rose from the ranks of the PN,” he added.

http://www.update.ph/2016/11/president-duterte-set-to-choose-navys-top-leader-for-first-time/10656