Lorenzana meets with incoming national security adviser

MANILA, Philippines — Less than a week before the Marcos administration officially takes over, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has met and spoken with two key incoming defense and security officials to discuss matters of national security and ensure a smooth transition of power and authority.

Confirming his meeting with incoming national security adviser Clarita Carlos last Wednesday, Lorenzana said he and the former president of the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) talked about the country’s security issues and problems.

“We talked about the counterinsurgency operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the need to sustain it,” Lorenzana yesterday told The STAR.

He said his discussions with Carlos also included the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which Carlos – as the incoming vice chair of the task force – had earlier agreed to study and continue its efforts to solve the New People’s Army problem through a whole-of-nation approach instead of just focusing on military solutions.

Lorenzana said he and Carlos talked about the West Philippine Sea and other general topics during the “short but very lively discussion.”

“I told her she will not have a hard time fitting into her job and understanding what the DND (Department of National Defense) is doing, as she was former president of the National Defense College and her specialization on national defense and foreign policy,” he said.

Carlos said in a social media post Thursday that she had a “lively riveting conversation” with Lorenzana, where they had an “exchange of views on our security issues.”

“It is so gratifying that I can sense the seamlessness of the transition from the outgoing administration to the incoming,” Carlos said.

Lorenzana also officially met yesterday with former AFP chief, retired Gen. Jose Faustino Jr., the incoming defense chief who was, according to him, one of Carlos’ students at the NDCP.

He earlier expressed confidence that “with his years of dedicated service as a military officer, Gen. Faustino will continue the department’s momentum in our internal security and external defense operations, as well as the modernization of the armed forces and the entire defense organization.”

Lorenzana said Faustino, who will be heading the DND as officer-in-charge until Nov. 13, 2022 because of the one-year ban on the appointment of retired military officers, “will hit the ground running, so to speak, having just left the AFP in November.”

Joint training exercise

Meanwhile, members of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) completed yesterday a four-day joint training exercise at Clark Air Base in Mabalacat City, Pampanga.

“Doshin-Bayanihan 2-22,” the second wave of a bilateral training exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), was a follow-up from their first team-up held in 2021 aimed at further improving disaster response and relief efforts of both military units.

This year, the JASDF deployed a training unit of the Air Support Command, a C-130H cargo aircraft along with its crew, to participate in the four-day bilateral training, which focused on capability enhancement for delivering relief goods to affected people in severe emergencies.

Utilizing both JASDF and PAF aircraft, the deployed units conducted in-flight and ground operations such as loading, offloading and airdrop.

Gen. Izutsu Shunji, chief of staff of the JASDF and Lt. Gen. Connor Anthony Canlas Sr., commanding general of the PAF, participated in the joint training events.

Izutsu has expressed his sincerest condolences to the kin of uniformed personnel who perished in the line of duty, and civilians who died from the tragic C-130 crash in July 2021 in Jolo, Sulu, just a few days before the scheduled bilateral training in Clark.

He highlighted the impact of the joint exercises to the overall defense relations of Japan and the Philippines, believing that “it is highly significant for JASDF to conduct bilateral training with the PAF in the aim of improving HADR capabilities and to strengthen cooperation with the PAF.”