‘Garci’ general named new AFP boss

One of the military generals linked to the controversial “Hello, Garci" wiretapped conversations has been named as the incoming chief of the 130,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines. On Wednesday, Malacanang formally announced the assumption of Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon as the successor of Gen. Generoso Senga who reaches his mandatory retirement age of 56 on July 21. Esperon will become the 35th chief of staff of the military organization. Esperon, along with the other generals mentioned in the tapped conversation between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, was subsequently cleared by a military fact-finding board headed by Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga. Mayuga was also among those considered to replace Senga. Mayuga belongs to Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1973 while Esperon is a product of PMA Class of 1974. Among the honorary members of Esperon's class is First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. To replace Esperon as Army commander is his classmate, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino. Tolentino is currently the chief of the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom). The announcement of Esperon's appointment came following the arrest of six Magdalo fugitives last week, foiling what authorities would later say as a plot to disrupt the President's state of the nation address (SONA) on July 24. It also came a week after a report prepared by Armed Forces Inspector General Rear Admiral Rufino Lopez over the botched February 24 coup was leaked to the media wherein 38 officers and 27 foot soldiers were purportedly recommended to face a general court martial over the February 24 incident. Lopez is Esperon's mistah (classmate) at the PMA. Esperon held various posts in the service, spending his early years as an officer in southern Philippines, battling communist and secessionist rebels alike. In between his junior and middle-level years, he took up intelligence courses and was even assigned at the defunct National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA) in the Marcos regime. Soon after, Esperon was deputy Presidential Security Group (PSG) commander during the Ramos administration and in the short-lived Estrada administration, was involved in the all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in central Mindanao as commander of the 602nd Brigade. In 2002, Mrs. Arroyo named Esperon PSG commander where he got his first star. He soon assumed the posts of 7th Infantry Division commander and the Special Operations Command (Socom) which supervises the elite units of the Philippine Army. In August last year, Esperon was named 47th commanding general of the Army, even when his name was dragged into the "Hello, Garci" controversy. He consistently denied any part in rigging the May 2004 polls in favor of the President. On Tuesday afternoon, Esperon ordered Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim to be held inside a maximum detention facility in Tanay town in Rizal province pending investigation of the sacked First Scout Ranger Regiment (FSRR) commander's alleged involvement in the botched February 24 coup. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro later explained that as Army commander, Esperon has the power under the Articles of War to detain any subordinate in any detention facility when under investigation. Lim was previously restricted to his quartres in Fort Bonifacio since February 24. - GMANews.TV Please see related stories: PCIJ: Lanao's Dirty Secrets PCIJ: Mayuga report silent on other top military officials linked to poll PCIJ: Mayuga resource persons Newsbreak: Esperon's Aspirations