Gen. Catapang
Soldiers have a way of “baptizing” their colleagues with snappy names, often a jargon of one’s surname.
The new Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gregorio Pio Catapang, Jr. is not spared from such as many in his military circle call him “Napa,” a prefix to his surname to make it “Napa-Catapang.”
In Filipino language, it directly means “so brave.”
Friends in his early years as a cadet in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) used it amusingly to call him out.
Thirty-three years later, soldiers who talk of him and refer to him as “Napa” Catapang mean exactly what his name sounds in Filipino – “so brave.”
Proof of his activity in his battlefield assignments in the army is a collection of 16 military merit medals, including the three gold crosses – the highest and rarest medals given to a soldier for bravery.
Catapang is not one to shy away from his “so brave” tag. “I am furious in fighting against the enemy of the government. I am also mad at abusive soldiers,” he said. “But I am a good person especially to friends and colleagues who do the right thing and follow the dictates of the service.”
Taking the reigns of the AFP upon the retirement of his predecessor Gen. Emmanuel Bautista last Friday, Catapang promised to lead the military with strength, dignity and, of course, bravery.
http://www.mb.com.ph/the-general-they-call-napa-catapang/
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