Porto retires, Bautista takes over 3rd ID

ILOILO CITY , Philippines  -- After more than three decades, Major Gen. Vicente Porto says goodbye to active military service today, April 5, and relinquishes his post as commander of the 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division to Major Gen. Emmanuel Bautista, the AFP deputy chief of staff for operations.

Major Gen. Romeo Lustestica, vice commander of the Philippine Army, will preside the turn-over ceremony.

Bautista, the AFP's J3, was the principal author and advocate of the new AFP Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) Bayanihan, which has been designed to win the war against communist insurgency.

Porto's leadership at the 3rd ID has been filled with the enforcement of 77 policies, standard operating procedures and directives that raised the level of operations of his troops resulting in the decline of insurgency's strength in Western Visayas to only 38 percent.

He said the 3rd ID has cleared 84 insurgency-affected barangays and insulated over 4,500 residents from threats of the rebels, and dismantled one guerrilla front while downgrading three others.

This milestone eventually resulted in winning peace in many areas within the 3rd ID's area of responsibility, capped by current negotiations for the surrender of about 32 rebels from central Negros Occidental.