CLASSMATES: AFP chief General Emmanuel Bautista and Northern Luzon Command chief Lieutenant General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. Photo by Carmela Fonbuena/Rappler
Changes in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) leadership loom again with the scheduled retirement of Army chief Lieutenant General Noel Coballes in February and AFP chief General Emmanuel Bautista in July.
The Board of Generals (BOG) has started the evaluation process for the next Army chief, Bautista told reporters on Monday, January 6. Coballes is retiring on February 7 when he turns 56, the mandatory retirement age in the military.
"It's a continuing process of evaluating. Many are qualified to be Commanding General of the Philippine Army. Rest assured that the senior leadership is evaluating [the candidates]. The selection is ongoing," Bautista said.
The BOG will submit its list to President Benigno Aquino III, who will make the appointment.
Strong contenders
Two names have been floated as possible successors of Coballes — the commander of the Tarlac-based Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) and the former senior military adviser of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.
[Video: Selection process for next Army chief begins
Nolcom chief Lieutenant General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr is a classmate of Bautista in the Philippine Military Class (PMA) "Dimalupig" Class 1981. He enjoys the advantage of familiarity to President Aquino who hails from Tarlac, where Nolcom is based.
"Trabaho lang po, kahit sa'n po tayo makarating, basta mabigyan tayo ng panibagong trabaho, trabaho lang po tayo (We're just doing out job. We will continue to do our jobs wherever we will be appointed next)," said Catapang.
He was in Camp Aguinaldo on Monday for the turn over ceremony of Nolcom's P379,000 donation to ABS-CBN's Sagip Kapamilya Foundation. Nolcom turned acacia trees felled by Typhoon Santi in October into furniture and sold them.
The other strong contender is Nueva Ecija-based 7th Infantry Division commander Major General Hernando Iriberri, who enjoys the backing of Gazmin.
A member of PMA Class 1983, Iriberri is younger than Catapang. He succeeded Catapang in his current post and will likely take his position at Nolcom if Catapang gets the top post in the Army.
Whether or not he takes the Army's top post, Catapang is also among those floated to be the next AFP chief. Bautista is retiring on July 20.
The Army chief and Nolcom chief posts are both key positions that have become stepping stones of those later picked as AFP chiefs-of-staff. The first chief of staff under the Aquino administration, General Ricardo David, was Nolcom chief before he was appointed to lead the military. Bautista was Army chief before he got the top post.
Transitioning military
Bautista retires as the AFP begins the second phase of Oplan Bayanihan, the military's Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP). It aims to make insurgency irrelevant by 2016. Bautista said the military has to shift its focus on territorial defense and climate change.
"Our approach to territorial defense remains the same. We renounce war as an instrument of national policy. We would like to resolve conflicts in the most peaceful manner. It applies internally and also externally. We will continue to pursue that national policy, without saying that we will not prepare for any contingencies. We will prepare for any contingencies that is why we have modernization program," said Bautista.
The New People's Army (NPA) remains the biggest threat to internal security. It is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which recently declared it has given up on the peace talks with the Aquino administration.
Bautista belittled CPP's plans to grow its numbers back to 25,000. The military earlier estimated their numbers to be around 4,000. The CPP remains strong in other areas, especially in Mindanao.
Bautista said he hopes to hand over more local government units to the police. "The year 2014 is our transition period. We will initiate gradual transition [of LGUs] to appropriate agencies of government," Bautista said.
In Northern Luzon, Catapang said the NPA has been weakened. "I call the NPA now, NPA remnants. They can no longer reverse the trend of the country becoming peaceful and ready for further development," he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
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