GMA promotes 200 AFP, PNP officers

President Arroyo has approved the promotions of more than 200 senior and junior officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said yesterday.

Ermita said Mrs. Arroyo approved the promotions in the AFP as recommended by Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz last month.

He said one PNP officer was promoted to the rank of director while more than 100 were promoted to the rank of senior superintendent.

Ermita, however, could not give the names of those promoted.

For the AFP, he said 89 from the Army were promoted to captains,

while 29 to first lieutenants. One officer was promoted to commander and 39 to captain in the Navy. The rank of captain in the Navy is equivalent to the rank of colonel in the Army, Air Force and the Marines.

Ermita added that Mrs. Arroyo also approved the deployment of more troops to Liberia and Haiti under the auspices of the United Nations.

One hundred and sixty-five troops were deployed to Liberia and 115 to Haiti, he said. The deployments would the fifth and third batch of deployment for Liberia and Haiti respectively.

Ermita also said retired general Efren Abu, who stepped down as AFP chief in August last year, has been formally appointed as special envoy to the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia East Asia Growth Area. — Paolo Romero