5 AFP officers promoted

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has approved the promotions of five senior military officers to the next rank, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) announced yesterday.

Brig. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario was promoted to the rank of major general; Commodore Edgardo Tamayo to rear admiral; Navy captains Alexander Lopez and Crispin Mercado to commodores (brigadier general).

Also given his first star by the President was Army Col. Leopoldo Santos Jr., a well-rounded naval officer who was a former defense attaché to Singapore before he was reassigned as assistant chief of Naval Staff for Operations.

Del Rosario formerly commanded an army unit against the New People’s Army in Davao. He is currently the head of the AFP Civil Relations Service (CRS).

Tamayo, on the other hand, was former commander of Naval Forces West (Navforwest) based in Palawan, a naval unit involved directly in the protection of the country’s territorial domain in the hotly contested domain in the West Philippine Sea.

It was during Tamayo’s stint as commander of Navforwest that tension mounted in the region due to the aggressive behavior of China to assert its territorial claim.

Both Del Rosario and Tamayo belong the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class ’80.

Mercado, an engineer, also held various key positions in the Navy prior to his reassignment as AFP deputy inspector general.

Now a brigadier general, Santos is the current commander of the AFP’s Communications, Electronics and Information System Service.

“I encourage our newly promoted generals to look at the stars on their shoulders as a fitting reminder of the greater expectations and responsibilities that come with the them,” AFP chief Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. said.

More movements

Meanwhile, another major reshuffle in the AFP’s command core is in the offing following the recent designation of Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista as Army chief and the forthcoming retirement early next month of General Oban.

Bautista’s new assignment to head the 78,000-strong Army, replacing just retired Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz, rendered his previous post as commander of the Capiz-based 3rd Infantry Division, vacant.

Among the strongest contenders to replace Bautista in his previous post, as bared by a Camp Aguinaldo insider, is Brig. Gen. Maximo Caro, dean of the cadet corps at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio City.

Caro, former Negros-based 303rd Army brigade commander himself confirmed that he is indeed one of the candidates to the top Army post in Western Visayas.