Dealing with dissension, internal and territorial threats are security focus

THE year 2023 opened with the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) greatly hoping that it would usher in something better for the defense and military establishments.

Indeed, it brought something, but one that they were not exactly hoping for – a resurgent unrest in the military, apparently spawned by the issues of delayed promotion and the full implementation of the law that was supposed to further professionalize soldiers.

Facing a risk that the “valid reasons” could transform senior officers once again into “coup plotters,” the DND and the AFP quickly moved to stem the root causes of dissension by asking the Commander in Chief to sign a record-breaking promotion and designation of senior officers.

The DND and the AFP, under a new secretary and a chief of staff respectively, also moved to amend Republic Act 11709 or the Act Strengthening Professionalism in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which among others, capped a threeyear term for 12 key positions in the military and raised the retirement age to 59 from 56 for senior officers.

While Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and the AFP Chief of Staff General Andres Centino may have temporarily addressed the rumblings in the uniformed service, the professionalism in the AFP, now tied to RA 11709, will remain a challenge in the current year.

Pacifying the military and addressing internal security challenges from the communist New People’s Army and various terrorist groups operating in Mindanao, some of them allied with the Islamic State, as well as dealing with the territorial challenge from the presence of China in the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and West Philippine Sea (WPS) are the key constraints for 2023 by the DND and the AFP.

Threats of adventurism

GALVEZ has admitted that some senior officers, whose promotions and designations were previously delayed or stalled, have valid gripes, but he sought to play this down, calling it as a “tampo” during a recent hearing of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation.

“We are listening to the concerns of our men and women in the AFP, who are understandably anxious over the perceived uncertainty in their careers under the new law,” the defense chief told senators.

The issue of delayed promotions and designations–at least 39 of which were signed and effected last week -fueled the fears of senior officers that the new military law will stall their promotions, if not force them out of the service.

There was apprehension that fixing a three-year term for the 12 key positions in the Afp–chief of staff, vice chief, deputy chief of staff, the chiefs of the Army, Air Force and Navy and the six area commands will prevent or stagnate the movement of officers in the military.

And if this happens, senior officers are prone or could easily be recruited to join a destabilization move, reminiscent of the wave that the AFP undertook from the time of the late former President Corazon Aquino up to the term for former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

RA 11709, which strictly enforced attrition in the military, also set a four-year fixed term for the superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

The inequity in retirement under the law — 59 years of age for senior officers from the rank of brigadier general and up, and 56 years of age or 30 years in service for enlisted personnel, junior and middle-grade officers — also makes the soldiers “restive.”

When the law was initiated and passed during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte, its prime movers had admitted that it would really hit senior officers, especially those holding the rank of colonel in the AFP, since they have to be promoted, otherwise they would have to be removed or retired from the service.

Both Galvez and Centino knew the gripes of senior officers, and this is why they moved to amend the law even before it could be fully implemented.

During his “talk to the troops” in his visit to the Army headquarters, the defense chief ordered the military to “take care of our people, resources and organization, as well as to keep the organization clean and maintain its integrity.”

“Stop being anxious; the DND and AFP have recommended the promotion system and retirement of enlisted personnel will no longer be governed by RA 11709. Your human resource development systems/ programs will be directly under the different major service commanders. When the [amended] law comes out, you will be excluded. Our prayer is for a smooth and quick ‘transition’ in 11709 in the management of our Armed Forces. We hope the amendments are done soon so your careers won’t be stalled,” Galvez said, speaking partly in Filipino.

For his part, Centino guaranteed the integrity of the body tasked to screen promotions and designations in the military.

“We can assure that during our watch we will always maintain the integrity of the board of the generals and the decision of the board of senior officers and that is the one what we are asking of our leaders . . . to respect the traditions and also the mandated power of the board of generals and our senior officers,” Centino said.

Communist insurgency, territorial threats

ASIDE from dealing with threats within its organization, the military will be preoccupied with ending the half-a-century old communist insurgency. The rebels, it claimed, now number a mere 2,000, with the remaining five guerrilla fronts merely operating in Leyte and Samar.

Duterte had ordered the military to end the insurgency during his term, and while the soldiers have failed to achieve this, they have managed to trim the rebel membership.

According to Galvez, they want to capitalize on this achievement by moving to end the insurgency once and for all under the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

The defense chief said they also want to deal with territorial integrity issues involving the KIG and WPS.

“The instruction of our beloved President is to keep our focus intact because we have two major focuses. One is to maintain the integrity of our country and second, is to eliminate already the different insurgencies that we have,” Galvez said.*