Philippine president appoints retiring general as military chief

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has cut short the term of the military chief of staff he appointed five months ago and replaced him with a retiring general without explaining the surprise move.

Marcos’s office announced the replacement of Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, who had received the highest military award for combat bravery when he was a young army officer, in a statement late Friday that did not specify any reason for the change in military leadership. Bacarro’s three-year term was supposed to end in August 2025.

Lt. Gen. Andres Centino, the military chief of staff who Bacarro replaced in August last year, was installed by Marcos to the top post of the 144,000-strong armed forces. 

Centino, who was due to retire next month, was chosen over a dozen senior generals and will have a fresh three-year term.

Asked for reaction on his removal, Bacarro told reporters without elaborating Friday night in a text message that the military would support the new military chief.

“Highest respect” to Bacarro

In a turnover of command ceremony at the main military camp in the capital on Saturday, Bacarro handed a saber symbolising military leadership to Centino and thanked the military, his family and the president. Marcos did not attend the ceremony but was represented by his close advisers, including Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.

Bersamin stressed in a speech how he was impressed by the smooth military leadership transition, which he said should be emulated by politicians to avoid disruptive post-election unrest like what has happened in America.

“Continue with this tradition, where you respect each other, where you give so much consideration to the qualifications of your fellow officers in order to enable your organisation … to move forward instead of looking back,” Bersamin said.

Marcos, he said, had asked him and other key presidential advisers to show the “highest respect” to Bacarro for his battlefield exploits and hinted the general may be given another government post after the end of his military career.

In 1991, Bacarro received a medal of valor from the military for thwarting an attack by about 150 communist guerrillas on a northern Philippine town despite his smaller force. Wounded in the thigh by rebel fire, he commandeered a dump truck and rammed a fence to allow government militiamen, who were pinned down, to escape.

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Philippine's military restiveness

A new law that took effect last year fixed the term of the military chief of staff to three years to allow a top general more time to initiate reforms and press a years-long campaign to modernise a long-underfunded military confronting communist insurgencies and increasingly aggressive actions by China in the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines lays claim to contested islands, islets and reefs with other coastal states.

The appointment of military chiefs is a touchy decision in a military that has a history of restiveness, failed coup attempts, past corruption scandals and accusations of human rights violations. 

Efforts have been made for years to instill professionalism in the military and insulate it from the country’s traditionally chaotic and corruption-tainted politics.

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