Major leadership changes this year in AFP

MANILA, Philippines - The military will undergo significant leadership changes this year due to the retirement of many of its key senior officers.

At least nine military generals will bow out of the service this year including Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista and the heads of major services.

Bautista, a graduate of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) class ’81, will reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 in July 20. Under the military rules, all generals and colonels are eligible to succeed him.

Army chief Lt. Gen. Noel Coballes, meanwhile, will hang up his uniform on February 7. A member of PMA class ’80, Coballes was chief of the Western Mindanao Command before he was named head of the 80,000-strong Army.

Sources previously said that the strong contenders to succeed Coballes are Northern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Gregorio Catapang and 7th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Hernando Iriberri. Catapang is a graduate of PMA class ’81 while Iriberri is a member of PMA class ’83.

Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Lauro dela Cruz will bow out of the service on April 30 while Navy chief Vice Adm. Jose Luis Alano will retire on May 1. Dela Cruz is a graduate of PMA class ’80 while Alano is a member of class ’79.

The military’s second highest post will also be vacated this year with the retirement of Armed Forces Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Alan Luga on May 12. Luga is a member of PMA class ’81 and a classmate of Bautista.

Also retiring this year is PMA Superintendent Vice Adm. Edgar Abogado, who graduated from the academy in 1980. Abogado will reach the mandatory retirement age on February 16.

Three of the six major commands will also experience leadership changes.

Lt. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, commander of the Palawan-based Western Command, will hang up his uniform on August 17. A member of the Aviation Cadet Program of the Air Force Flying School class of 1980, Deveraturda was the leader of military forces in the Visayas when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Bohol and when typhoon “Yolanda” battered Tacloban and nearby areas.

Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III will retire on September 6 while Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Caesar Ronnie Ordoyo will bow out of the service on September 8. Both of them are members of PMA class ’80.

Armed Forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Domingo Tutaan, Jr. said the leadership changes would not affect the military’s programs.

“We will be able to continue what has been started as far as our programs are concerned and in like manner, this will also (generate) new ideas and new concepts,” he said.