Support new AFP chief, troops urged

Hail to the new chief.

Gen. Diomedio Villanueva relinquished his post yesterday as chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and called on the troops to support the leadership of his successor, former Southern Command (Southcom) chief Roy Cimatu, who was promoted to four-star general.

In his farewell speech at the turnover rites at Camp Aguinaldo, Villanueva described his successor as "among the company of brothers who never fail to inspire us as they stood their ground and walked tall past the smoke of battle."

Cimatu, a battle-tested officer, got the plum post two days ahead of schedule. Villanueva officially bows out of service tomorrow, his 56th birthday, the mandatory retirement age for Filipino soldiers.

President Arroyo expressed confidence that Cimatu "will do good as AFP chief."

"For the last time, I called him Lieutenant General Roy Cimatu because I have signed his appointment as full-fledged general," the President said.

"General Cimatu, carry on the tradition of valor, service and tradition," Mrs. Arroyo said at the turnover ceremony.

"General Cimatu’s hat weighs heavily with the feathers of victory and success. Indeed, if there is one combat officer who leads his men across the line of departure, it is General Cimatu," Villanueva said.

He also said during his command, the AFP was able to attain peace, albeit fragile, which an officer like Cimatu should preserve.

Cimatu’s appointment as the 29th AFP chief was questioned by certain quarters in the military, saying he, too, will be retiring shortly.

Mrs. Arroyo defended her decision to pick Cimatu as her No. 1 soldier, saying it is her prerogative as commander-in-chief of the AFP.

"I can take only one chief of staff at a time. I’m supremely confident that I have chosen rightly for the service and the country the man who will lead the AFP’s tradition of fine soldiers," the President said.

Adverting to attempts to block Cimatu’s appointment, Mrs. Arroyo expressed optimism that the "usual flurry of white papers and derogatory press siege would end, and I hope they don’t resurface when it’s time to choose the next chief of staff."

As Southcom commander, Cimatu headed 40 percent of the 130,000-strong AFP and was in charge of operations in Mindanao where Abu Sayyaf terrorists have held hostage for a year now an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse.

He was given the moniker "General Pacman" for spearheading the military’s all-out campaign against the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in July 2000, resulting in the capture of 19 rebel camps in Mindanao, including their main headquarters Camp Abubakar.

A member of the elite Philippine Military Academy Class ’70, Cimatu started his military career in Antique where he met and married the province’s reigning beauty queen at the time.

Reform programs

In her speech, the President gave assurances that the captured MILF camps would not be returned to the separatist Muslim rebels.

At the same time, she cited Villanueva’s efforts to institute reforms in the AFP, and vowed to pursue his reform programs including increase in benefits and salary of the troops.

Mrs. Arroyo particularly cited Villanueva’s proposed "national military strategy" drawn up in response to her call for a review of the AFP doctrine.

"I am glad that the mechanisms for the creation of the revolutionary and military affairs of the GHQ (general headquarters) level are now in place and ready for replication in the other commands nationwide," the President said.

"I have high hopes that this program will successfully reorient our soldiers on the role of the AFP in the 21st century and its primary mission of defending national security," she added.

On back-door peace negotiations with the MILF which have drawn severe criticism from her detractors, Mrs. Arroyo hinted that the talks were in pursuance of the government’s program for the rehabilitation and development of areas damaged by the 30-year civil strife in Mindanao.

To compensate for damage to private property, Mrs. Arroyo said pertinent government agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of National Defense, the AFP engineering brigade and the National Housing Authority will coordinate with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for the establishment of a "building core shelter unit" in the affected areas.

She said the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the defense department will assist the ARMM government in providing relief and rehabilitation to evacuees in the war-torn areas.

Quoting a report from Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on national defense, the President announced that a Malacañang certified bill raising the basic salary of the soldiers, may be passed within the month.

She also ordered the release of P8 million from her social fund as donation to a foundation that will provide free education to children of soldiers killed or maimed in the line of duty.

Among the other dignitaries who witnessed the AFP’s change of command was Admiral Thomas Fargo, the new chief of the US Pacific Command.

Fargo, a classmate of National Security Adviser Roilo Golez at the Annapolis Naval Academy in Maryland, flew to Basilan on Friday to visit US troops involved in a joint military training exercise with Filipino soldiers tracking down the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers of Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kansas and Deborah Yap of Lamitan town in Basilan.

The US has dispatched some 1,000 troops to Southern Mindanao as part of a global war against terrorism, the second biggest deployment after Afghanistan.

Officials of both countries have linked the Abu Sayyaf to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, principal suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.