Psy-war man named AFP spokesman

From Malaya Business Insight (Feb 22): Psy-war man named AFP spokesman

THE military’s top psychological warfare officer has been designated as Armed Forces spokesman.

Brig. Gen. Bienvenido Datuin assumed his new post on Tuesday in concurrent capacity as commander of the AFP’s Civil Relations Service (CRS) which is leading the military’s psychological warfare against the communist New People’s Army and other threat groups. He became commander of the Camp Aguinaldo-based CRS last month.

Datuin replaced Col. Edgard Arevalo who will now focus on his main position as the assistant AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations. Arevalo became the AFP spokesman in December last year.

“This is going to be a big challenge,” said Datuin on designation as the new spokesman of the 125,000-strong military force.

Datuin said that as CRS commander, he has to influence the perception, belief, emotion, behavior and attitude of the people.

He said he can strike a balance between being CRS commander and AFP spokesman, saying he has done this in his other assignments.

Before becoming the CRS commander, Datuin was deputy commander of the 10th Infantry Division based in Compostela Valley and of the 701st Brigade in Davao Oriental.

This is not the first time a CRS commander had been designated as AFP spokesman. The most recent CRS commanders who served as AFP spokesmen were Brig. Gen. Joselito Kakilala, and Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/psy-war-man-named-afp-spokesman