AFP to abolish anti-coup unit

MANILA, Philippines - The Armed Forces of the Philippines will abolish its primary anti-coup unit, the National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM), next year as part of a plan that seeks to ensure the efficient use of military resources.

The abolition of NCRCOM is part of the Department of National Defense (DND) Planning Guidance for 2013 to 2018, which aims to incorporate “hard but necessary” force restructuring measures. The plan also aims to achieve “a lean but fully capable” active force while addressing some capability gaps.

Documents obtained by The STAR showed that NCRCOM would be the first unified command to be abolished once the plan is implemented.

The NCRCOM covers 16 cities, one municipality, and 1,695 barangays with a total population of around 12 million. The unit is based in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City and is tasked to secure the seat of the government.

The NCRCOM will be deactivated in 2012 and the troops under it will be placed under a new unit called the Northern Command (Northcom), which will be activated in 2013 and will handle all military forces in Luzon except those in Palawan. 

Northcom will also absorb the troops currently under the Tarlac-based Northern Luzon Command and the Lucena-based Southern Luzon Command. Both NOLCOM and SOLCOM will be deactivated in 2013.

The DND said the purpose of reducing the unified commands is “to achieve unity of effort.” The measure also seeks to “maximize efficiencies by having only one unified combatant command headquarters per major island group.”

“The personnel and mission essential equipment planned for those headquarters that are to be deactivated shall be reapplied to other priorities such as completely filling up the personnel and equipment needs of the remaining unified commands,” the DND guidance read.

Military sources, however, said the plan would entail a tedious task to whoever would be named commander of Northcom. Sources said the area to be covered by Northcom will be much wider compared to that of other units.

Another source said the Northcom headquarters should be placed somewhere in Metro Manila to ensure that Malacañang would be adequately secured.

The DND plan also seeks to reunite the Davao-based Eastern Mindanao Command and the Zamboanga-based Western Mindanao Command into Southern Command (Southcom).

The Southcom will be reactivated in 2013 and will secure the entire Mindanao province. The area command was split into Eastern Mindanao and Western Mindanao commands in 2006.

The Central Command (Centcom) based in Cebu City will be retained and continue to secure the Visayas region. The Palawan-based Western Command (Wescom), which secures the West Philippine Sea area, will also be retained.

The DND plan will reduce the number of area-based unified commands from seven to just four namely the Northcom, Wescom, Centcom and Southcom.

The DND has asked the military to submit an implementing plan before Dec. 31 to ensure a smooth implementation of the restructuring program.