COTABATO CITY—President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has promoted a Philippine Air Force one-star general to Major General, along with 22 senior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
On recommendation of AFP chief of staff General Andres Centino and the chairman of the Board of Generals Brig. General Roldan, Philippine Air Force has been promoted to one-star general.
Two Philippine Navy Captains were also promoted to the rank of commodore, and one PN member to brigadier general—Colonel Antonio G Mangoroban Jr.
The rest were senior officers of the Philippine Army. Most of those promoted were alumni of either Master’s Graduate Program in National Security Administration (MNSA) or of the General Staff Course (GSC) or both.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., the President said he has approved the promotion of 18 officers with the rank of full colonel to brigadier general. Among them are 15 members of the Philippine Army (PA), two from the ranks of the Philippine Air Force, a Philippine Navy (Marines) colonel to brigadier general, and two PN (M) captains to the rank of commodore.
Residents of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) were jubilant on learning that among those donned with the first general’s star is their own Col Taharudin Piang Ampatuan.
Ampatuan topped his class of the AFP Command and General Staff Course in March 2011. In an ambush interview by reporters then, Col Ampatuan assured that his career would not be affected by the outcome of the gruesome Maguindanao Massacre which socially devastated the family by wide public impression, psychologically even affecting schoolchildren among them.