New leadership

New set of officials. New policy pronouncements. New expectations. On April 5, President Duterte accepted the resignation of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, appointed Director Oscar Albayalde as the new chief of the Philippine National Police, and named Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez as the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

In consonance therewith, Duterte announced Aguirre’s departure from the Cabinet in a speech during the awarding of outstanding farmers, fishermen and coastal communities in Malacañang. Duterte appointed Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra as the new justice secretary. Meanwhile, Albayalde will replace PNP Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who was supposed to have retired on Jan. 21 but had been extended in office twice. Dela Rosa is expected to be transferred to the Bureau of Corrections after leaving the PNP. 

On the other hand, Galvez is the chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom). He was in charge of military operations in Marawi when the city fell to Islamic militants last year. He will replace Lt. Gen. Rey Leonardo Guerrero, who will retire on April 18 after a six-month extension in office. 

Social media has been so powerful in the case of the then DOJ Secretary Aguirre’s non-reappointment. It came at a time of widespread media speculation he would be sacked over his performance. I believe that in relation with the tagging the Reds as terrorists – which is one of the highlights of Duterte’s security policy propaganda, the Secretary has been inefficient for putting the process in slow pace. 

Also, Aguirre’s departure from the Cabinet might be due to insufficient evidence, dropped charges against several drug kingpins who had admitted their involvement in the illegal drug trade. The dismissal of the complaint sparked widespread public outrage, forcing Aguirre to have the charges brought by the police investigated by a new panel of prosecutors, although he blamed it all on the “outrage of the ignorant. Further, we can recall that Aguirre was also dragged into a controversy over an attempt to bribe two officials of the Bureau of Immigration, which comes under his remit, and a proposal to make businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the P10-billion pork barrel scam, a state witness.

Withstanding the issue in the AFP, the incoming Chief of Staff General Galvez next to Guerrero, will be a good shackle to blow the terrorists since the expertise of the new Chief has always been on peace keeping operations. The challenge is how to balance the external and internal security since we have territorial defense operations and internal security operations. Internal Security Operations shall be fully given to PNP of DILG to make the AFP concentrate on military operations. – Jumel G. Estrañero, Defense Research Analyst & College Faculty