Southcom chief gets third star

Put another star on his shoulder board.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Southern Command (Southcom) chief Maj. Gen. Ernesto Carolina has been promoted to lieutenant general for his decisive action against the Abu Sayyaf.

President Arroyo approved Carolina’s promotion, along with the promotions of six other colonels to star rank and four generals to the next rank.

Carolina is a member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class ’70. The Southcom, which he heads, is the largest unified military unit in the country and is based in Zamboanga City.

Brigadier Generals Alberto Braganza, Reynaldo Alcasid and Efren Abu, all division commanders, were promoted to the rank of major general.

Braganza was directly commissioned as an Army officer in 1970 and is chief of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based at Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija. He was previously the senior military aide to the President prior to his assignment to his present post.

Alcasid is a member of PMA Class ’71 and commands the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Camp Jamindan in Capiz, while Abu heads the 2nd Infantry Division in Tanay, Rizal.

Promoted to brigadier general were Colonels Hermogenes Esperon, Romeo Tolentino and Orlando Ambrocio of the Army; Raul Perez and Ralph Flores of the Air Force and Renato Miranda of the Marines. Navy Capt. Jorge Necessito was promoted to commodore, the naval equivalent of brigadier general.

Esperon is a member of PMA Class ’74 and is now the commander of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), while Tolentino, Esperon’s classmate at PMA, is head of the 104th Army Brigade based in Jolo, Sulu.

Miranda, another member of PMA Class ’74, is chief of the 2nd Marine Brigade operating in Mindanao.

Ambrocio is a member of PMA Class ’72 and head of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command in Nueva Ecija.

Perez is the Air Force Inspector General, while Flores, of PMA Class ’71, is the commander of the 710th Special Operations Wing of the Air Force based in Floridablanca, Pampanga.

Necessito is the only member of PMA Class ’73 in the Navy who has been promoted to star rank so far. He is the Chief of Naval Staff at the Navy Headquarters on Roxas Boulevard in Manila.