Defense chief Galvez acknowledges 'rumblings' in ranks over delayed promotions
MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. acknowledged before senators on Tuesday that there were complaints among military personnel over delays in promotions and in official designations.
Galvez during a Senate hearing with the Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation said he brought up the "major issue" to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
"I told [the chief executive this] is a major issue that we need to tackle because this involves the lives of our officers, they worked hard for this for 30 years and then they will end up on the brink of being default just because of a one-day delay in their promotion and the delay of their designation," Galvez said.
Marcos Jr. had already signed around 40 personnel folders for promotions and Galvez said the department will smooth things out by the end of the quarter.
Galvez, along with other top defense officials, faced the Senate panel to present their proposed amendments to the Strengthening Professionalism in the Armed Forces of the Philippines Act, which was passed in 2022 to end the "revolving door" policy off appointing top military officials to posts they would only hold for a short time.
Fixed terms for top brass
Instead of the three-year fixed term for all key officials of the AFP, the Department of National Defense proposed that the AFP chief of staff be given a fixed three-year term, while the commanding generals of the Philippine Army and the Philippine Air Force as well as the Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy will each get a two-year term.
Meanwhile, the superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy will get a four-year term.
Galvez pointed out that the current three-year fixed term deprives qualified junior officers of the chance to be promoted or "compete equally" while spending at least two years in a post will allow of the “stability and continuity” of services and programs.
Republic Aact 11709 also introduced a provision that sets a lower retirement age for military personnel. Galvez said this has "gravely affected" the morale of their officers, noting those who graduated from Class 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 are worried they may not be promoted to brigade commander before reaching retirement age.
Galvez noted that the prohibition also discriminates against or deprives those who entered the service late in life but are still qualified to be promoted to general.
“What our officers want is a sense of fairness and to change the law that really abritrarilly discriminates against them, excluding them from competition,” he said.
“We want to equalize the playing fields and at the same time, we will not arbitrarily remove the best among the qualified from holding the key positions.”
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